When you set up your query, do it this way ( I believe you were missing the ‘date_query’ key ):
$args = array(
'date_query' => array(
array(
'year' => 2012,
'month' => 12,
'day' => 12,
),
),
'ignore_sticky_posts' => true,
'post__not_in' => get_option('sticky_posts') ...
);
$query = new WP_Query( $args );
http://codex.wordpress.org/Class_Reference/WP_Query#Date_Parameters