CHARLEMONT, Mass. – With the sun shining bright and the temperature pushing 40 degrees, Nancy Campbell had one thing on her mind Thursday morning: skiing.

“It’s sunny, there’s no wind, and the snow is nice and soft,” the Amherst teacher said as she finished a run down the Berkshire East ski area in the northwest corner of the state. “It’s great. It’s like summer skiing.”

Ski resorts across New England have enjoyed a busy holiday week thanks to a dump of powdery snow that came the day after Christmas – a welcome boost near the outset of what many feared would be a slow season.

“On December 4, we were about 50 percent behind our business from last year,” said Jack Filiault, vice president of Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock, where 31 of 40 trails were open Thursday. “But since Christmas Day, it picked up. Now we’re about 25 percent ahead of where we were last season. Each day of this holiday season has been bigger than the day before it.”

Although many ski areas are still relying heavily on machine-made snow to cover their trails, the storm that buried the New England coastline with up to 18 inches of snow got skiers in the mood.

“It can’t be anything but good news to have snow in Boston to keep everyone thinking about how great it is to get outside and enjoy the winter weather,” said Martha Wilson, public relations manager at Bretton Woods Mountain Resort near New Hampshire’s Mount Washington.

From the Sunday River ski resort in Bethel, Maine, to Ski Sundown in New Hartford, Conn., the natural coating was a welcome topping to the manufactured powder.

“People seeing it in their back yards gets skiing in their minds and they want to get out to the mountain,” said Dotty Craig, Ski Sundown’s marketing manager. “It makes a nice sweet topcoat on all that base.”

In addition to the storm, some northern resorts saw consistent snowfall throughout the week, said Tori Provost, marketing director for the Vermont Ski Areas Association.

Jay Peak, in northern Vermont, got a total of 18 inches this week; Sugarbush and Stowe in central Vermont also received several additional inches. It was a welcome change from the heavy rains that soaked the state earlier this month.

“The skiing is constant and good. Everybody seems to be booked,” said Provost, who said business for the Christmas-New Year holiday appeared to be on par with last year, when Vermont had been blanketed with large amounts of natural snow.

Max de Wardener, owner of Yawgoo Valley Ski Area and Sports Park in Exeter, R.I., said the 8 inches that fell there boosted numbers this week. He expects more to come out over New Year’s weekend.

“As soon as that occurred, wow, it just brought out the crowds and they’ve stayed,” he said. Eight of the area’s 12 runs are open, with bases anywhere from 10 to 36 inches.

Now that business is picking up after a slow start to the season, many resort operators say they expect to have about as good of a year as they did last winter, when freezing temperatures made for ideal artificial snow making, even though the real thing was hard to come by.