Been there! Done That! I can't remember how many times I've put one of the kids to bed with all of their clothes on including mittens hats etc as I didn't want them to wake up without being at least a bit rested and not 'cranky'.
I never had a problem with the kids going to sleep. However I will say that I learned a valuable lesson with the oldest one. As most of us who are parents you can tell by the look in a child's eye that they are tired. So when bed time was getting near my daughter would be getting 'that look' and I'd tell her it was time for bed and she usually didn't argue, however one time when she was about 5-6 I told her it was time for bed and she didn't want to so I said, "Honey, you're tired, I can see it in your eyes". Well the next time I had to tell her it was time for bed she opened her eyes Wide Open and said; "I'm not tired--See"!
It didn't work--I put her to bed anyway and she never tried the wide eyes open thing again.