Where is the best place to go for snow?

You could try the Lake Tahoe area. That will be an all-day trip each way if you're driving.

Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood is probably the most convenient to Southern California. It doesn't require a lot of mountain driving like Big Bear does. But, when it's a particularly dry year, most of the snow is man-made and only on the ski slopes. If you want to make a longer trip out of it, go to the Sierra Nevada, specifically around Lake Tahoe. Tahoe gets over 100 inches of snow a year at lake level, and usually between 300 and 500 inches a year at alpine ski resort level. Mammoth and the June Lake area are also nice places in winter.

Depending on the time of year and if there is snow fall I would also consider the Sequoia National Forest. Distance-wise not as far as Mammoth Lakes or Lake Tahoe, but considerably farther away than Big Bear. It about 225 miles one way to SNF which has a lot of snow play areas and also has a small ski area. It's within the parameters of a day trip but stretching it a bit. Visalia is nearby and there are cheap motels/hotels there. If you enter the park there is an entrance fee ($20 or less?). The place is usually pretty much deserted in the winter except the ski areas.

Mammoth Lakes is about 300 miles one way. And Lake Tahoe is probably close to 500 miles one way depending on the route you take. Big Bear is in the range of about 100 miles one way. Big problem with ski resort areas is that if you stay overnight rooms can get pretty outrageous. Big Bear is no exception when it comes to the cost of a room but luckily it is easily a day trip or you can stay nearby to the Indian Casino in Highland if you want to kick back that evening. Nearby to LA there's also Mt. Baldy which is up CA-39 which is a ski area and snow play area - but you have to catch the snow pretty much after a snowstorm. There's also Mountain High on CA-138 and Wrightwood - but these are all ski areas NOT snow play areas.

When my kids were small I once went to Mt. Charleston about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas and there is actually a small ski area there. We went snowboarding there but there was not a lot of snow but more than I thought there would be. Plus rooms in Las Vegas in the winter can be had for as little as $50 a night or less at any number of lesser named hotels (that is not named Wynn, Metropolitan, Caesar's, Bellagio, etc.).

Northern Michigan or the Upper Penisula

Mammoth Mountain offers skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing, snowmobiling