Brown Christmas beer?

Hi all,
I'm thinking of brewing a Christmas beer. I'm thinking that I would like to use a brown ale or possible a brown lager as my base beer and add some spices. I'm thinking that maybe a brown lager (more for smoothness) would be interesting with the addition of some of the following:

Vanilla Beans or extract
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Clove
Spruce

I'm leaning more towards heavier vanilla and adding cinnamon and nutmeg sparingly. I like the idea of spruce but I don't think I would add it with the other flavors at all. I'm just starting to play around now with ideas. What are some of your ideas on this subject? What have you used in the past?

I have a few recipes and know basically which spices I'd use, but was wondering more if anyone had used a brown/dark lager instead of an ale for their Christmas beer. I figure that I have the time now to plan, brew, and age.