Dunno if I can say it's a favorite (yet), but I'm currently playing Napple Tale (Dreamcast) and I love the whimsical atmosphere it has. You can tell they did a lot of worldbuilding in the game, can't wait to get deeper into it.
But I'm only really bringing it up because it's one of the games I'm playing currently and it just happens to during Christmas season. I do think it's a good fit for a Christmas-style game though.
Same here; I've started up two playthroughs for it in the past but both of them died with either my memory card or my system (PS3 in the latter's case). Didn't get super-far in either but when I'm ready to try a 3rd time I'll have to blitz through the opening areas.
But it'll have to wait a while, got enough JRPGs either on the dock or in the query to play for a few months. As for PE2 story timeline, it takes place in September over a few days.