From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Martha MacCallum & The Gift Of Faith

Episode Date: December 4, 2021

This week, Sean and Rachel bring the Anchor of The Story on the FOX News Channel, Martha MacCallum, to the Kitchen Table to share her stories of her family's holiday traditions in their new book, All American Christmas.   Martha shares how she emphasizes the importance of Advent during the holidays and hopes that she can pass along that same faith to her family because she believes it is the greatest gift for children. Later, Martha expresses her gratitude to FOX for accepting her as a person of faith.   Order their book!   Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at Mijeri.com today. Hey everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm your host, Sean Duffy, along with my co-host for the podcast, but also my partner in life, Rachel Campos Duffy. Thank you, Sean. It's so exciting to be back at the kitchen table. And today at our kitchen table, we have someone, I'm really excited to have her because I've always admired her at our network. network, but she's a friend, one of the people who reached out immediately when we decided we were going to move closer to the studio. And so it's my pleasure to welcome Martha McCallum, a Jersey girl. Martha, welcome to the virtual kitchen table. Thank you both. And I am so thrilled that we have you in New Jersey now. and I'm a huge admirer of both of you and especially of your family and your commitment to your beautiful, large family. I've been so inspired watching you guys with your kids on the air and talking to you about them off the air, too.

So it's really nice to be with you both. Thank you. You know, Martha, when we decided to do this book, we were just really amazed at how many people were willing to share their stories. And your chapter really resonated with me. And, you know, first of all, when I've been on your show, we've had several times you and I've had topics that have come up that have a religious angle to it. And so obviously I've always felt very connected to you as a fellow Catholic. But your story about Christmas resonates with me because it has such an emphasis on Advent, on the four weeks leading up to Christmas. And Sean and I try very hard in our own family to be very intentional about Advent, that, you know, that is the

beginning of the Christmas season and that that preparation is what makes the holiday, the birth of Christ, you know, it gets us ready for that. And I loved all the things that you shared. And I wondered if you would just share some more of the things that you did and have done to make Advent meaningful for you spiritually? Well, thank you, Rachel. And I think it changed for me over the years. I definitely have grown in my faith as I have, as I grew up. And as a little kid, Advent to me was just so exciting because it meant that Santa was coming and toys would be coming and all of those things that kids get wrapped up in and find so much joy in. But as I got older, I, and I also always loved,

and we just had it this past Sunday at mass to see that first Advent candle lit on the wreath, because it's just, it's the most exciting time of the year for me. And I love the time that you get to spend with family and friends. It's always a little bit exhausting. You know, today I woke up feeling like, Oh my gosh, you know, I have to get done this weekend and I want to do some wrapping and finish, you know, finish our tree and everything. So it's always a little bit emotionally overwhelming. And you feel like you walk around during Advent with just a little, just slightly tired from, from all of the things that go on, but also really, it's so fun to be with people and to,

to share it. So I, you know, one of the things that we do that we start with is there's a little Christmas fair at the local Catholic school that my daughter went to here. And I love going to that right before Thanksgiving. And there's a man there who sells these really old style German Advent calendars. And they have angels and Mary and Jesus and Joseph on them. And you open the little doors. And I always get a bunch of them and give them to family members so that they can start opening them.

And this year, my husband's sister has a granddaughter, and she gave it to her, and she just sent me a little video of her opening the first doors, and it just was so beautiful. So are these calendars? Some of them will have a little scripture in them when you open them. So I just think it's a great way to pace the season and to remember to sort of be prayerful during the season while you're wrapped up in all of the other fun stuff too. I love that. And so we just had ours.

We do the chocolates with the kids. And I just dropped off some for Pete and his kids in his office right now um just today so I'm I agree with you I love that so but is the German man that's selling it are they are they paper or are these like more precious than that they're paper they're the old fashion kind yes paper and they just have a little picture inside, which sometimes isn't, it's not nearly as exciting as chocolate. But sometimes you open them and it's, you know, a carrot or an ornament or a picture of something. But it just, they're just so sweet and old fashioned.

They have little sparkles on them. And I love, I remember when I was a kid, you know, just sort of not letting myself ever open a door before the day came and just sort of looking at the big doors on the 24th and anticipating what was going to be in them. So I just I love I love all of that. That is awesome. So, Martha, I think right now we see so much of America coming under attack and assault, whether it's our history from our founders to Christopher Columbus to the flag. and assault, whether it's our history from our founders to Christopher Columbus to the flag.

We've now seen BLM go after Christmas and Christmas is racist. And I think our tradition, our history is so important as part of our faith. And we do it because we love it as parents, but we also hope that we pass it on to the next generation. And as we've had a couple, we have nine kids, as a couple have left the house, Rachel has been very deliberate in doing exit interviews with our kids to go, what has gone well and what hasn't gone well? And we ask them to be honest and how we can be better parents because we get to keep retrying to do it better. We get do-overs, Martha. So with your own kids, have you had any conversations about, you know, kind of what they loved about Christmas and what you did in your home and what you still do in your home that makes them excited and what they want to carry on in their own families as they get older? Well, I love the idea. I love that you do an exit interview. I never, that never occurred to me, but I think it's a great idea, especially since you guys, you know, keep trying to get it right.

The first were experiments. I think that's a great idea. You know, I think that when my kids have left home, one of the things, I just try and you can only, there's a limit to how far you can go because once you've sort of they do become fully formed at some point. And but I have always tried to encourage them to keep going to mass when they're off on Sunday, like, Hey, happy Sunday, to try to make sure that because only because for this reason, because I know that it will be a source of strength for them. And church is one of those things that it's like exercise. You don't always feel like doing it, but once you do it, you're always really glad you did. And I just know that they will need to lean on it throughout life.

And there's so many things that pull you away from your faith as you grow up and you get out in the world and you have your job or whatever. So I just have really tried to be open about wanting them to continue to go. It's an exercise. It's a weekly exercise. And it's sometimes people say, oh, well, I'm praying, you know, when I need to. But something about actually walking in and sitting in the pew, it kind of makes everything else melt away.

And I want that for them. I want them to have that peace and that hour because they have a lot of stress in life, starting their lives and their work and everything. So that's the only reason that I just want it for them. I want them to have that sense of peace. So, and certainly during Christmas, you know, one of the things that I've always stressed is singing and music and caroling. And I used to take them caroling when they were little. My friends and I started this very little caroling group with the, with the little girls when my daughter was, was little. And we'd take them around the neighborhood and just ring people's doorbells and start singing outside really loud. And it was so much fun. I don't think people do

it as much anymore, but we did it when I was growing up. It's like trick or treating, but it's, you know, just, you just start singing at the door. And so they grew to love that. And we would later on, we brought the whole party into the house with the piano and singing all these Christmas carols. And I just, I'm always, I love it when I see a parent or one of my kids, parents, a friend's parents, or one of my kids, parents, a friend's parents, who know deep verses of good King Wenceslas, you know, they know every person. Wait, look at the football coach over there, singing his lungs out. It's the greatest thing. Do you still do it Martha?

Do you still go caroling? To have that spirit and that love of, of enjoying this whole period. Yeah. Do you, do you still go caroling with, with, uh, with your family? So we do it in house. Um, the crowd got a little large for traveling around the neighborhood and the kids got a little, a little big, but it's just to sing around the piano and the girl, my daughter and her friends used to do this beautiful Christmas concert at their school, Oak Knoll.

And it was so moving, that concert. They still, they do it every year at the school. And so they'll get around the piano and sing some of the songs that they used to sing at Oak Knoll, the School of the Holy Child. So yes, we have carried on the tradition, but we don't bang on people's doors anymore. But I hope other people do because I think it's a good thing to do with little kids.

I do, too. I think that's really fun. And, you know, I think I think if I did it now, I would wonder if, you know, the neighbors might think someone's, you know, I don't know. I don't know what people would think. But people used to do it all the time. I love the idea, though, because people, you know, people love it. Not everyone opens the door. Sometimes they don't even come to the door. But if you get a house that is really excited, they just are so happy that you're doing this tradition and they'll give the kids some candy canes or something. And the kids get such a kick out of it.

One of my favorite pictures, photographs that I have in a frame that I pull out every year is just this group of kids. My kids are all in the picture, a whole bunch of kids from the neighborhood are in the picture. And especially the boys, they look like little, little, you know, Charlie Brown characters, because their heads are tipped back and their mouths are wide open, and they're singing their hearts out. And it's just one of my favorite, most joyous pictures that I love to bring out at Christmas. Yeah, Christmas does bring out the best in so many people. But then even going back to what you said about, you know, the real meaning of

Christmas and how you've really tried as a mom to pass on your faith and the habit, as you say, of going to mass off to your children. And I can tell you as a, my, my mom was somebody who always harangued me about going to mass, you know, go to church and would send me, you know, the bulletins to make sure, you know, that are you going to church to, you know, that those kinds of messages. And I was in a very horrific car accident when I was in my early mid, mid twenties, um, really terrible, terrible car accident. And I was the only survivor and I was on my early mid-20s, really terrible, terrible car accident. And I was the only survivor. And I was on the side of the road.

And when that happened, it was dark. There was no one there. And everyone was, you know, passed away who was in the accident. And when you're in that stillness, I mean, my instinct, I didn't even think about it. And I was very injured as well in the accident. I had broken my legs in several parts. But I just started praying. And I don't remember that, but the people who found me said, we found you and you were praying.

And so it's a gift that we can give our children for that. I mean, as a parent, I can't imagine how my parents felt when they got the news and wondering what I, you know, what I was going through, but they actually gave me something for a moment like that. And I've always been really grateful, really, really grateful for that. And the other thing I'm grateful for Martha, and you can, you know, tell me how you feel about this. I feel so grateful to be working for a network that is, you know, we can be who we are as people of faith in this network. And so many of our colleagues are people of faith. And you can see from these stories in the book that people aren't afraid to, you know, not just to say Merry Christmas, but they're not afraid to share, you know, what it means to them in that spiritual sense.

I couldn't agree more. And I know that my own faith has only grown since I came to work at this network. And I did feel in other places that it was just something people didn't talk about. Everything was kept very generic because no one wanted to offend anyone. because no one wanted to offend anyone. But I've always felt that whatever your faith is, I just have so much respect for people who, who dig into their faith and who I can learn about their traditions from. I just think that that is what is so rich about this country and makes us so strong. So I love that about working at Fox, that it is, it does embrace and respect people's religious liberties and faiths. And we talk about it. And I, it definitely

helped me to be more open about my faith over the years and it has strengthened it. So I'm really grateful for that. I'm grateful to work in an environment where, um, where that is respected and encouraged and embraced. Yeah. Yeah. And I think what's interesting too, as we did this book and asked for people to share their stories to Rachel's point, it was remarkable how open people were and sharing, you know, what they did as, as young people growing up, you know, for, for Christmas and now how they celebrate Christmas today. And I mean, some, some really beautiful stories, some really, um, hard stories were shared

with us. But I think the, the, the theme of, of this Christmas book, as I read all the stories of, of, of the sharing is it was people's faith. They really were celebrating the meaning of the season and family. It's about a time that people were gathering with their families. And if you look at the foundation of life and happiness and meaning of life,

it really does come down to faith and family. It's the bedrock principles. And it's interesting, this time of Christmas, we go back to the basics of our faith and our families. And again, sometimes people are trying to take that away from us a little bit, but you can't take it away from at least America. Everyone gravitates again to their churches and to their families. I got to tell you this, I love in Wisconsin, I would drive through towns on Sunday. Rachel and I were traveling Catholics in the sense that I would pick a church

and a mass that worked for us. Because we're so busy. We're so busy. But if you drive through parking lots on Sunday in churches are full. People are going to church. And sometimes that's not the message that's given by other networks,

but it's true. America still is a place of faith-filled people who love God and love their family. Yeah. Martha? Yeah, it's interesting that you say that. Wait, just quickly. Sure. Our masses were outside for a long time during COVID, and I thought it was so interesting because over the weeks, more and more people were coming and standing outside in our coats and with fold up chairs from a, you know, soccer game or whatever. And people who were walking by on the street were just look over and kind of, I think they were a little bit surprised at how many people were outside. And I thought, this is kind of a beautiful thing that we are not inside, but we're outside.

And it's something that's being noticed by everybody who walks or drives by. So I agree with you. I think that even here in New Jersey, our church is full and more people have come back every week, which is really, really great to see. Yeah, you guys were like a public witness in so many ways. I remember running into a nun in full habit at the airport and I approached her and I asked her to pray for something that was on my heart. And then I said, hey, I love that I could find you

because you were wearing your habit. You know, some nuns don't wear them. And she said, yep. She said, I'm a walking sermon. So that was great. Wait right there. We'll have more of this conversation next. This episode is brought to you by Missouri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Missouri's biggest sale ever. From bold hoops to minimalist stacks, Missouri has something for everyone. Missouri makes handcrafted fine jewelry for every day made with responsibly sourced materials.

So you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at Missouri.com today. One of the things that Sean and I talked about in our book was how we melded our traditions. You know, I come from this, you know, Hispanic heritage and he has this Irish Catholic heritage and we kind of had to negotiate how we were going to do it. Sean agreed to keep Christmas going, by the way, Martha, until January 6th, which is Epiphany. I know January 6th has a different meaning these days, but for us, it's still Epiphany. And for us Catholics, and so we have a whole other Christmas, you know, it's like Christmasiphany. And for us Catholics, we have a whole other Christmas. It's like Christmas all over again.

And our kids get presents from the Wisemen. They put their little shoes under the family altar, and they fill it with sugar for the camels. And then they each get three gifts, just like the baby Jesus, on Epiphany. But I'm wondering, what are some of the things that you and your husband had to negotiate in terms of family traditions? Well, first of all, I love how you celebrate the Epiphany. I think that's beautiful.

I wish I had done that with my kids. I think that's a great way to extend Christmas. One of the things that, you know, my husband and I come from very similar backgrounds. We both grew up in New Jersey. We came from, you know, sort of Irish, Scottish, French, German backgrounds. And so we did have a lot in common

when we melded our traditions together. His mom was old school when it came to putting the Christmas tree up though. And she liked to wait until Christmas Eve, which I just could not do. So, Martha, Brit Hume does that. That's from his chapter. I know, I saw that in his, and I think it's beautifully traditional to just put the tree up and not decorate it and then have it be a surprise. But I love looking at the tree once it's up and just going in there. And I've caught my kids at times just going in and sitting by the tree and

looking up at their favorite ornaments and contemplating Christmas. So I love putting it up early. So that was one, it wasn't a tough negotiation, but that was definitely one that I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't fold on. I had to get the tree up right after Thanksgiving. I get that. So for us, we put it up after Thanksgiving and then it stays till Epiphany. And so the thing is like a total fire hazard in our house. We are really good about like water the tree, water the tree. So it lasts.

Right. And we kind of, we get it, we cut it fresh. So, but still, it's a, and Rachel keeps, she's an Arizona girl, Martha, so she keeps her house like at 83 degrees when it's 20 below us. So it dries the tree out through the month and a half

that we have it up. Well, that's the one thing, I mean, when I went, because I grew up as a military brat and so we, I never had a real tree and plus my dad's from Arizona and my

mom was a city girl from you know from Madrid so like you know there was never a real tree that I didn't even I didn't even thought about it I thought that was just in movies you know so I went with fake trees the aluminum trees in the you know in the 70s um and then when I met Sean that first Christmas we went to get a tree and his mom actually was sawing it down. And I just thought it was amazing. Oh, that's awesome. So we've been cutting down our tree ever since then. To me, it's like it's the tradition.

I just I love so much about just going out into the woods and arguing about which tree to get. And then like Sean said, we have to make sure we keep it well watered as well. One thing I want to share with you, Martha, since we mentioned about Epiphany, also on the Feast of Epiphany, on that night, so the night before, on the night of the 5th, when the kids put the shoes out,

because it's now the end of the tree, right? So we cut a end of the tree right so we cut a branch from the tree and then sean because he's the the leader of the house the father only on that day only on that 10 minutes martha my leader of the house i don't have to explain that. So he then gets holy water. And we will. So first we start by the door and we he says a very ancient Catholic prayer. And we we he with a chalk, he marks the top of our door.

And so it has the name, the initial for each of the three wise men. So Casper Melchior and Melchior and Balthasar. And then each of those letters, the abbreviation is up there. And then it's surrounded by the year. So 2022 would be the next one. And then a cross in between each. So he marks the door. He blesses the door.

And then he goes room by room, which the kids love. And with holy water, he blesses. And the tree branch, using that, he blesses every room in the house. And the kids think it's amazing. They're like, bless the toilet. Bless everyone. Bless everything. That's beautiful.

You guys are amazing. I love hearing about your traditions. And I would love to see a video of that. It's actually very fun. Now, I have to tell you one thing. and I would love to see a video of that. It's actually, it's very fun. Now I have to tell you one thing. So Steve Juicy brought in your famous bourbon cheesecake. It's a cheesecake. And he brought it in and it was for a segment

that we were doing. And he tried to tell me that I couldn't eat it because they needed it for another segment. And I said, are you kidding me? I'm like, hell no. So he said, fine, you can have a beer. So we ate it and it was so good. It's so yummy.

I hope you liked it. Yeah, that's in Steve Doocy's recipe. That's a McCallum famous Christmas recipe. So that's my mom's amazing. My mom loved to cook and she made that beautiful bourbon cheese pumpkin cheesecake every year. And I always looked forward to it. It was just one of those things. I remember putting my chin like up on the kitchen counter where it was waiting for Christmas dinner and couldn't

wait to dig into that. I could smell it right now. Oh, listen, it was so delicious. And no matter and you can see the food stylist off kind of like cringing at what I was doing. You can't put this thing in front of me and not think I'm going to eat it. So we did enjoy that. And thanks for that recipe, because, boy, I'm going to do it this year myself. I'm going to attempt.

I'm not a great baker. I'm a much better cook. She's a good cook, not a great baker. Not a great baker. But anyway. Baking is so hard. You'll master it. No problem, Rachel.

I'll try. Well, Martha, we just loved having you on. Thank you for sharing your stories in the book. Thanks for all the time that you took out today to be with us. We're so grateful. Listen, Martha, I appreciate you being an example. It's wonderful to have people talk about their faith and their traditions. And if more people do it, more people feel comfortable talking about it. And we can accept people from all different walks of life, but that also means to accept us in our walk of life. And for us, we look at you and think you're just fantastic

in how you share your beliefs and your faith and your family. So thank you for joining us. I always say, you know, I'm not like, you know, I'm just trying to be a better person and a better Catholic. I don't, you know, feel any, you know, it's like, it's just a journey, right? You just go day by day. And so I'm grateful to you guys for the opportunity to talk to both of you. It's so nice to be with you both. And I wish you a really Merry Christmas. And I think the book is a beautiful testament to all of these stories. And I thank you guys so much for, for doing this book and for giving everybody a chance to kind of get a window into some of our fun and special stories. Well, thank you so much, Martha. We love you. We love your show. And we're just grateful and that you could make time for us.

And we want to wish you a very, very Merry Christmas Christmas. And we'll have to get together soon. We look forward to it. Thanks so much, you guys. Take care. Thank you so much, Martha, for joining us at The Kitchen Table. We've enjoyed the conversation, that virtual cup of coffee with Martha.

And if you did too, let us know. Subscribe, rate, and review this podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you download podcasts. We hope to see you around the kitchen table next week. Bye-bye, everybody. Next Saturday morning. Bye-bye. I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers