KH is an awesome mountain for advanced skiers. Like others said, the majority of the beginner/intermediate terrain is on the lower chair, accessed from Catamount or Pioneer chairs. The gondola does have a couple of green and blue options down from the top, but not much. Same with Stairway to Heaven. Skiing from the top to the bottom will of course mean skiing the lower mountain terrain too. However, if you want chutes, you've got them! Late Dec/early Jan is pretty early season there, and coverage will probably still be pretty thin. That might mean that some of the terrain isn't open yet, and it will definitely mean that some of the chutes will be a little narrower than later in the season when more of the rocks are covered! At that time of year there's a fairly high probability of it being pretty darn cold, I've skied at New Years there when it's been -32C plus wind, and my last few trips there in general have been well below -20C. At least you get a bit of a break from it in the gondola.
As far as food goes, I've never eaten at the top ($$$), we bring our own lunch to eat at the bottom. I've had the yam fries down there, and they're tasty. Never stayed in the village. There are some good restaurants in town, like the Whitetooth Bistro and 11-22.
For other attractions, there's not much in Golden. There's a climbing gym which I've never been in. There's groomed cross-country skiing up near the base of the ski hill, and it's a good set of trails. Lots of other places to x-country ski or snowshoe if you don't need them groomed. An hour south is Radium Hot Springs, which would be a good side trip. 2 hours the other direction, through the Rogers Pass, is Revelstoke, if you wanted to check out another hill. Of course, assuming you're coming from a flight landing in Calgary, you'll also be passing Sunshine (near Banff) and Lake Louise on the way, both less than 2 hours from Golden.
Feel free to pick my brain some more, I only live about 3 hours south of there, and my sister used to be a ski patrol there, so I can dig up specific info about something if you ask.
- still not 100% recovered 
) but we got most of the ticket prices transferred back (minus a small admin fee, I believe). 
if you will be downtown, i can probably meet up with you, depending on the date, and show you around some parts of town. 
