Yes, here Christmas sort of happens but the big deal is New Year's, and I have work over the holiday anyway, so it's hard to keep straight the holiday days from the ordinary ones. Still, Yuletide is a fun distraction.

even if a story doesn't get written right away I can just go back to it years later and still know what I wanted to do with it.
This is great! I should do this more; I know there are various possible story ideas that have slipped away from me because I either never wrote them down or just assumed that if I wrote down a couple of hints I'd remember the rest...
(Once I get into short paragraphs in outlining I tend to start arguing with myself, a good sign that I should just shut up and let the characters talk :) )