That's an bit of an unusual plan your are going for. 1st week of Dec can have the resorts 3/4 open, or struggling to get much open. It just depends on the year.
If you are going to fly to Denver, then I'm going to assume you want 2 hrs or less of driving which most likely puts you in one of these places:
1) Vail/Beaver Creek - NOT cheap in any way, though the Beav has some really good beginner terrain up top of the mountain.
2) Winter Park - not very inspiring green terrain, IMHO, though you could do worse.
3) Breckenridge or Copper Mtn. Of these two I'd probably recommend Copper as less crowded, though not much happens in that base village.
Still all of these resorts are within 20-60 minute drives of each other if you want to go for a variety of places. Depends on your mood and skill set.
To be honest, if there is decent natural snow early and you are just learning skiing, I'd almost recommend trying out Ski Cooper which has perfect beginner terrain at an awesome low price point. However it's not a 'resort' so there is no lodging right there. You'd stay in the old mining town of Leadville but it is a 15minute or so drive each day and since there is no snowmaking, they have to get decent snows in Nov to be open by your first week of Dec timeline.
Really depends on what experience you want. The 'traditional' touristy big Colorado resort experience? A more local flavor experience? Since you are just beginners, there are much better price points than the big resorts available. It's when you can really ski most of the mountain as an intermediate that the big resorts make more sense IMHO.