Holiday vacation starts today for thousands of students and teachers throughout northeast Indiana. Displays on trees and buildings delight all but the most entrenched Scrooge, and with decorations and falling snow, it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Why so much political news in a time when there is often a lull?

Just as we complain that the Christmas season seems to start earlier every year, so, it seems, does the political season.

In fact, the two months from mid-November to mid-January – between the general election and the beginning of filing candidacies for the following year’s primaries – are often full of activity as incumbents let it be known whether they will run again and challengers organize campaigns. So it’s no surprise that a candidate announced for City Council the week before Christmas, and the other 2011 city races will begin taking shape in the coming days.

But much of the current news concerns not 2011 but 2012. Evan Bayh says he is out of the 2012 governor’s race. Speculation abounds whether U.S. Rep. Mike Pence is in. U.S. Rep. Baron Hill says he is most likely out. Analysts discuss whether U.S. Reps. Brad Ellsworth or Joe Donnelly are in. Already, opposition begins to form against venerable U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, whose 2012 re-election bid is garnering unusual opposition in the GOP primary. (For more on this, read Sylvia Smith’s column Sunday.)

And other news events are kicking the political turf, frozen as it may be. Congress continues to address serious and controversial issues. Indiana’s Republican Party chairman resigned, spurring lots of interest in his successor. An unusual end-of-year political skirmish has emerged locally as well, with a fight brewing over a new city court.

Why, in this season of giving and tradition, do we care so much about politics?

The short answer is because the people who hold positions of power and what they do is of utmost importance to Americans, year-round.

And a respite is in sight.

Students trade school books for snow boots this weekend and swap study for shopping. Families separated by work and school will reunite in the coming week. Many workers who get both Christmas Day and Christmas Eve off are looking at a three-day workweek followed by a four-day weekend – and that includes many government employees.

So if it seems like there is more political news this time of year than in the past, you are probably right. The fact that people care and are paying more attention to who is making laws and setting policies is only good.

And none of that will overshadow Christmas’ arrival one week from today.