What with the falling of winter and that cyclical and conceptual winding down of the year, the reflections and evaluations come flooding in. But besides the superficial "end of the year" prompting, I think there are some deeper structural influences that encourage the self-reflecting mood.
For one, the cyclical mass gathering of people familiar to each other and who know each other puts them into a closer proximity both through space and time. Conversation, tones, body language, and all the rest are presented at close range and across longer stretches of time and at higher resolutions than is usual for regular correspondence through communication technologies.
This provides the occasion for mutual evaluation and judgment, whether solicited or not, and so one leaves the family gathering vibrating with vivid feedback on the current state of one's life and one's person, and the reflections begin not long after that. It can be a painful experience for the atomized modern, accustomed to the rarified cube or at least the nuclear household, suddenly pressed into the communal image and beckoned to interact.
If anything, it takes some more work to construct an attractive and believable mask, though an increasing part of the collective conversation involves acknowledging the rapidly unraveling social fabric, whether through commiseration or heated argument.
It can be good too. Good food and drink, enjoying the company and perspectives of fellow travelers, and so on. Just as many smiles and winks as growls and snarls.
