Usually, most of us can manage to look forward to the new year and convince ourselves, however temporarily, that the time ahead is one of full of possibilities and hope. However, the prospect is a little bleaker if one is a member of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party, a supporter, or, worse still, the party's leader, Mr Enda Kenny.
It has been said often, for it is true, that Mr Kenny is one of the most likeable and decent men that one is ever likely to meet inside or outside politics. But decency does not always win the watch.
Before and after his election in place of Mr Michael Noonan, Mr Kenny bridled at suggestions that he did not have the energy and commitment to reinvigorate the party's depleted ranks.
Since June, sadly, he has done little to change those opinions, wasting a flood of opportunities to harry a Government in rag order following a May general election hangover.
Following his accession to the party throne, Mr Kenny set up the Strategic Review Group to advise on the party's future, under Mr Frank Flannery. It makes for sober and sombre reading. Without change, the party is heading for extinction.
In 1982, under Dr Garret FitzGerald, Fine Gael won 39.2 per cent of the vote. In May the party's share was just 22.5 per cent. And the bottom may not have been reached.
Touching on the role of the leader, the group said: "Fianna Fáil long ago recognised that politics are increasingly personality/people-driven and are not as policy-driven as in former years. The current image of Fine Gael is wholesome, healthy, traditional and boring. It seems to belong to another age.
If Fine Gael wants to escape from here, it must begin with its packaging, presentation and perceptions.
"The presentation, image, identity and focus of any political party in the new political age is inextricably linked with its leader. A lousy party can succeed with a brilliant leader - the opposite does not work," the report said.
In two years time, said Flannery's team, the mention of the name of "Fine Gael" to the public should lead them to respond: "They're really setting the pace; that Enda Kenny is doing a really good job."
Maybe we will, because there are few who would say it now.
In any event, Fine Gael under Kenny does not have two years to play with. New candidates must be found for the local elections in mid-2004.
And that will not be easy. By general acknowledgment, the dual mandate's abolition by then will hurt Fine Gael more than even Fianna Fáil because high-profile national politicians will not be available to head local tickets.
And Fine Gael's situation will not be made any easier by the Moriarty tribunal's continuing focus on the awarding of the mobile telephone licence to Esat Digifone in 1996 by the rainbow government.
For now, Mr Kenny must learn to play to the strengths that he has. He is not a great speaker, nor has he shown any particular ability to exploit parliamentary tactics to embarrass the Taoiseach.
Worse still, there is no evidence that the situation is going to get any better in the new year, especially given the Taoiseach's notorious ability to parry the Opposition's thrusts with false displays of agreement.
And Mr Kenny has more than Bertie Ahern to worry about, given the signals emerging from Labour that it will try to "out-Blair" the British Prime Minister with a message of "change" in the years to come.
Already, the relationship between the two parties is becoming irritable. Kenny's image will plummet if Labour's new leader, Pat Rabbitte, succeeds in becoming "the Real Leader of the Opposition", à la Dick Spring. Kenny's failure to shine in the DEail does not, nevertheless, mark the end of his hopes. His job is a difficult one. Few now probably will remember that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was pretty woeful at it between 1995 and 1997.
Therefore, he might well consider ceding much of his duties in the Dáil to the party's deputy leader, Mr Richard Bruton, who is, at least, prepared to try and behave like a terrier in the chamber.
Instead, Mr Kenny should take to the highways and byways and clock up several hundreds of thousands of miles between now and the next local election to meet as many of the electorate face-to-face as possible.
If he does, they will like him. If they like him, they might just decide to vote for him, if Fine Gael can get its act generally together elsewhere and ruthlessly focus on getting middle-class support.
Or Mr Kenny's New Year resolution could be to offer more of the same.
If he does that, he has as much hope of becoming Taoiseach as Joe Higgins, and the odds on him staying as Fine Gael leader after the next election are little better.