To believe that the year doesn't end on 21st December?

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

I know it's a first world issue and that I'm probably very irrational to even think about it, but it really irks me when all of the reviews of the year are invariably published or broadcast on 21st or 22nd December.

Not so much when it's a review of planned releases of music/films/books etc, as these do very much tend to dry up before the last couple of weeks of the year.

However, when they look back on major world or national events and 'people we've lost this year', do they not realise that, statistically, you're just as likely to die in the last 10 days of the year as in any other 10 days (maybe even more so, if the cold weather is a contributing factor)?

What would they do if a monarch, president or similar figure of global importance (or even several of them gathered together in a large-scale tragedy or attack) were to die after the year's been de facto declared to be over and all of that year's retrospectives have been published and locked into the annals of history? Even if not a world leader, a celebrity important enough that they would have been included and maybe featured very prominently if they hadn't clung on that bit longer or waited a fortnight before having a fatal accident?

They never seem to get added to the following year's reviews, so do they just miss out for ever on the recognitions and tributes? Why the urgency to review a year before it's actually finished?

I thought this was going to be a post about the shortest day of the year!

Never noticed it though, I avoid all those review of the year programmes. You make a good point!