Commentary: New Year’s Eve offers respite from the holiday challenges

Without a doubt, the most important thing about New Year’s Eve is not that it is the end of school breaks, nor that it is the end of the tax year.

It is, of course, partying hearty.

Now that may seem silly, but it’s not. Not really.

Partying is very important. Especially at the end of something. Like the year.

Though various unnamed and over-sophisticated media from less-favored parts of the nation might call New Year’s Eve a pointless annual outburst of mindless revelry, psychologists would call it a “positive reinforcer.”

A positive reinforcer is a reward for a job well-done. What was the job?

The holidays.

For the average American, perhaps no time of the year is more demanding and stressful than the holidays. Digging out that old walnut and marshmallow fudge recipe. Digging out that old recipe for Wassail punch. Digging out that old Wassail to go in the Wassail punch. (What is a Wassail, anyhow?)

Shopping for just the right gift for picky Aunt Jane without spending too much and offending jealous Uncle Jack. Decorating the house inside and out enough to signify holiday cheer, without overdoing it and having the neighbors cluck-cluck about people who spoil the holiday mood by trying too hard.

Hoping to receive just the right gift, and hoping to disguise the deep disappointment if it turns out to be the wrong color, the wrong size, the wrong style, or just totally inappropriate, again.

But all the hard work is worth it, isn’t it? The holidays are the one time of year when family and friends really make a huge effort to get together, and then to genuinely get along in an atmosphere of love and generosity, bright lights and music, sweetness and good cheer.

May the party begin.

Dr. STEVE DAVIDSON is a clinical psychologist in Newport Beach.