Living in The Bay area, we've always gone up to Mt Rose, or other resorts in the Lake Tahoe area. Mt Shasta seems farther away, but actually you're always on the freeway, so time-wise it's the same.

Now for the mountain. The mountain obviously isn't large, but there's something about the atmosphere. Mt Rose had many more runs, but it was hard to find that "fun one," but at Mt Shasta, all the runs are excellent even though they aren't super long. The only drawback is slow lifts, but the runs are totally worth it. The snow park isn't huge, but it seems like people enjoy it anyways. From what I remember, you're allowed to go back-country skiing wherever, but then getting back is a problem. The runs are open from 9 am to 9 pm, The lines have never been long, because they go quickly. Only two of the three lifts start up at the lodge, so you need to take either one to get to the third lift (the line is generally very short here). The third lift also happens to be the lift that stops running at around 4pm, so use this one during the day, and then pop over to the other ones for night skiing. The night skiing at Mt Shasta is key to it's holidayish atmosphere. Not only are the people very nice and helpful, but the night lights are yellow tinted, not the white that most places have, so when you're going up on the lift, everything looks beautiful and warm, not that cold white. The night skiing at Mt Shasta is by far the best. Day skiing ends at around 4:30, and so most of the people are done by then, and then you start really hitting the runs. No lines.. ever, the snow somehow gets a lot better, and you have the time of your life!
The lodge isn't enormous, and the 2 or 3 food places usually have long lines at lunch time.. so just avoid it and you have good food quickly.

I wholeheartedly recommend this mountain.

(I also hear they're trying to buy another mountain to expand, so it'll be even bigger and better in the future)