After all, there are full moons in the summer as well. Extreme winter tides happen when several different factors combine. The winter sun is low, but the full moon on the other side of the sky is high, more directly above us. There was a full moon on January 2, the earth was closest to the sun on January 3, and the moon was closest to the earth on December 30. It's not surprising that we had extreme tides.
Gravitational attraction is based on distance and is stronger when the bodies are closer.
Luna's perigee is about 221,463 miles vs. apogee of 252,710 miles. I first thought of this stumper when I heard a local radio announcer mention that New Year's weekend was a great time for the beach since the tides were so low this year. This has happened before. I immediately thought that the reason was the altitude of the ecliptic in the sky. In the summer, the sun is high and the full moon and planets and zodiac constellations are low at night, but in the winter this situation is reversed.