From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Restoring Faith & Tradition At Christmas

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

On this episode, Sean and Rachel sit down to discuss the sharp decline in churchgoers over the last few years and the importance of attending mass. Later, they talk about a church that has changed the lyrics to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" in an effort to become more inclusive, how inflation has impacted the holidays, and share what Christmas is like in the Duffy house. Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The all-new FanDuel Sportsbook and Casino is bringing you more action than ever. Want more ways to follow your faves? Check out our new player prop tracking with real-time notifications. Or how about more ways to customize your casino page with our new favorite and recently played games tabs. And to top it all off, quick and secure withdrawals. Get more everything with FanDuel Sportsbook and Casino. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600.

Visit connectsontario.ca. Hey, everybody. Welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm Sean Duffy, along with my co-host of the podcast, my partner and wife and my life, Rachel Campos Duffy. So great to be back at our kitchen table and so close to Christmas. Oh, yes, it is. I can smell it. I can smell Christmas. I can too. The fireplace, the cookies.

The chestnuts. We're not roasting chestnuts. Does anybody roast chestnuts? You know what? When I grew up overseas, my mom's from Spain, roasting chestnuts really was a thing. And I love roasted chestnuts. It does remind me of Christmas because growing up in Spain, they did that, but you would get it on the streets. They would roast chestnuts and sell you little bags. Never seen it. Never seen it. I'm a non-cultured man, but still enjoy

Christmas. No, no, no. It's know different traditions okay speaking of traditions going to church at christmas time is a tradition even people who don't go to normally go to church we call we call them in the catholic world we call them sienese yes the christmas and easter catholics the ones who show up just on christmas and just on easter that's okay um at least they're coming to church however there is a troubling new poll sean that has just come out we actually talked about it on fox and friends with cardinal dolan just this past week um when i At least they're coming to church. However, there is a troubling new poll, Sean, that has just come out. We actually talked about it on Fox and Friends with Cardinal Dolan just this past week when I was filling in for Ainsley. But this this is a pretty troubling poll. It shows that 45 percent drop in church attendance.

And that that was during the pandemic. People aren't coming back. Churches were closed. People kind of got out of the habit of going to church. But also there was a time not very long ago when Americans were very religious. You know, 70% of Americans, like back in the 1940s all the way through the 90s, claimed some sort of church membership. 40s all the way through the 90s claim some sort of church membership. That number also plummeting, mostly because now we have this huge increase.

Now, 21 percent, that's a large number. 21 percent of Americans say they have no affiliation, no religion. They consider themselves none. So that number growing. And so we see all these things happening. When I had Cardinal Dolan on, it was supposed to be a happy Christmas message segment. I had to bring it back because I kind of got a little bit peeved at Cardinal Dolan. He's a nice guy. But I was mad at the church, especially at the church itself, but also Dolan was following the rules. He was a rule

follower during the pandemic and, you know, out of wanting to make sure people were safe. But I thought they sent the wrong message. So the pope and everybody else was, you know, taking orders from the government, which, by the way, something I don't like. I like I like separation of church and state both ways. Right. I don't want my church taking orders from the government as they do in China. I don't want my government taking orders from the government as they do in China. I don't want my government taking orders from the church as they do in theocratic societies in the Middle East. So I like it both ways. But in this case, during the pandemic, so many churches took orders, including the Catholic Church, and they shut down their churches.

So it was weird. these weird messages that one going to church and having a spiritual life wasn't essential that priests and pastors and and and rabbis were not essential and then they also had this weird message sean where cannabis shops were open strip clubs were open but churches were closed down liquor stores i thought it was interesting in the conversation with cardinal dolan he did say listen i think we made i think he said they made a mistake. He did. He regretted it. Too late.

He said there's the health of the body, but also the health of the spirit. That's right. And we were providing spiritual health, and we shut down and couldn't provide that in a really trying time for so many people, so many families. There was so much depression. There was suicide, a lot more drug use, alcohol use during the time of the pandemic. So I was happy to hear him recognize that.

But when you do see the drop off, and listen, I'm going to be really honest, we've fallen prey to this. Over the pandemic, you've commented that you were able to get communion from a rogue priest who would do a secretive mass. communion from a rogue priest who would do a secretive mass. You know what's funny is to this day, I won't divulge his name because I still think government officials could come after him. So he was doing secret masses. He was quietly holding masses and distributing communion when nobody else was. And I felt like I was a first century, I was going to get martyred for this or worse. I felt like I was in China or in the Middle East or having to go to some underground church and receive communion

in secret. I never thought as an American that those words could ever come out of my mouth, that I went to a secret mass. I received communion in secret. But people of faith had to find different solutions and churches did as well. And so we had these online masses or church services that happened across the country. And what I found was it was really easy, right? We could be in the kitchen cooking, having dinner. And all of a sudden we're like, oh, let's pull up a mass, you know one that was recorded today popping on youtube and we could all sit around in our living room together and and watch a mass and i could be

you know in my pajamas and no shoes on and you didn't have to get the kids ready so easy really and also sean if you remember how you know how cold it is in wisconsin it was also like oh i don't have to get into a cold car. That was you more than me. I don't have to bundle up my kids or myself. So yeah, we got comfortable and some people never got out of that pandemic mode. I'm going to do a little confession here on our podcast. There's been a few times, not many, but a couple of times over the course of probably the last year and a half since the pandemic has happened.

I can probably count two times in our hands where our lives have become crazy. And it's like you're going here and I'm going there and the kids are. And all of a sudden we mismatch. Let's just do it. Let's just do. We can't coordinate. It's just easier just to go. We'll do it here on Sunday.

We'll take the pandemic mass the pandemic mode and because a lot of these churches never stop streaming their services right and so again it was it's it's it's better than nothing and we would do that but it was also an option and again i think there's something that we get by going to church right i mean can we give an hour of our of our lives a week uh to to say thank you and go to a service? Get dressed, get out of your sweatpants and get dressed and go to church. And have a community of like believers with you.

Exactly, be around the community. There's that community thing, but also the message you send to your kids about what you value. And by the way, you know me, I've talked about this a lot, how having kids that have to go to church and learn to sit still for an hour is actually really good for kids.

A lot of lessons in church. A lot of lessons in church. Also, you know, I have a nice house, but I don't have beautiful architecture. I don't have the beauty, at least if you're Catholic, you have these gorgeous churches and you have artwork and you have the stations of the cross and you have bells and you have incense and you have all this ritual that, yeah, you can watch it over the TV. It's not the same as being in it. And for Catholics, especially the mass is very experiential. You know, it's it's by sound.

You're hearing the word of God, you're smelling the incense, you're hearing the music, you're hearing the bells that are calling you to the importance of the, of the, of the Eucharist and, and of the consecration. So there's so much going on. All of your senses are, you know, immersed in this moment in this hour and you lose that when you're at home and you get lazier. And so also for the priest, Sean, they've lost donations in the process. So some of them are like, get back to church

because we need you to be able to put your money in the basket. But more than that, they understand that the American family, the Christian family is suffering right now. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we have, you know, 21% of Americans who say they don't believe in God anymore. You have this plummeting of people going to church and sort of communing with other like believers. And you have families, you know, falling apart at rates we've never seen. And we have mental health issues on an enormous scale because religion has always been a bulwark against so many of these things that can happen to people, including, you know, depression. And probably, you know, if you look back, you know, from whether it's the 40s, 50s, you know, through, as you mentioned, the 90s, 70% plus were, you know, church going, mosque going. They had a phase. And so it was not political.

But in the 90s, I think that's when you started to see this divide of the parties where Republicans built a coalition of church going people of faith and Democrats were on the outside of that. And so you've seen this separation. And if you look at, and I think the stat is correct, if you look at non-believers, atheists, they are three times more likely to be a Democrat than a Republican. And I think that happened in this political schism with this believer, non-believer situation. And just you were talking and made me think about the things that parents give their children and what we do to pass something off to them. We take them to soccer practice or hockey practice, baseball practice.

Take them to school. And we'll play the sport with them in the backyard and we'll take them to school and we'll help them with their homework. There's so many things that we try to impart because we love our kids. I mean, this is, I don't know, the embodiment of love. And if you look at the greatest gift that you can give them, it's to give them faith, to pass off the faith that you have. And you don't do that if you do what we did a couple of times over the last year and a half, we're like, oh, it's not important. And we might just watch it on television. Actually going is showing how important it is.

And then to talk about it after and apply the principles that the priest talked about or the pastor talked about that day, how we apply those in our lives. That shows your kids that this is actually a really important thing. And I love your story. You had a bad accident. Can I just say something really quick as you remind me of something that St. Francis said? He said, preach the gospel at all times when necessary, use words. And again, that action of what you're imparting, what are you teaching your children by just the action of saying, Sunday is Sunday? We don't work as hard Sunday is set aside for God and for church. You do. And we're going to get dressed and you're going to put on your nice shoes and brush your hair in a shower and you're going to get ready. And, and with, without saying a word about what

all that means, kids understand that it's special, right? And that God is special and his house is special and that we, you know, we get ready to go there the way we would get ready to go to someone important's house. Right. And so I think that there's just so much that you can pass on through that. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. That's right. And I think in the most trying times in someone's life, as you look at the little kids you raise, the most trying times they might come across, whether it's at work, you know, in their marriage, in their, you know, whatever personal things happen to them, what you, the gift that you've given them of their faith and that relationship they have with God is something they can always fall back on and rely on and go to. And it's a power of

strength and allows them to persevere through very challenging and difficult times in their life. And I think it's, I don't know how people who don't have faith actually get through some of these really hard life issues that come up. A lot of people find their faith in those tragedies, right? But other people, I've met people who have lost a child and they don't have faith and they seem so lost. And I feel so bad because I wonder, how do you get through this without knowing, without a faith, without knowing that you're going to see that child again in heaven and not believing that? It must be really, really difficult. I think people make their lives more difficult. We see, Sean, a denigration of family. We see crime on the rise. We see so many social ills. And I think a lot of it stems from lack of religion and the lack of

family formation and family values that come from being part of that family. formation and family values that come from being part of that family. You know, I did Laura Ingram last night, hosted her show, and then I got home really late. I didn't get home till one o'clock and you were still up. And we laid in bed and had this kind of conversation. I won't go into all the details of our conversation, but I sometimes exude a little bit of depression about what's happening. We're talking politics. Now you know what we do in bed. We can't get away from it. But I thought you made a really good point. You were talking about, there are countries who've had rebirths in faith and religion and patriotism and hard work and- Countries can renew themselves, right? They can renew themselves. They can get new leaders and new blood, right? And they can be re-inspired.

And so I guess, you know, at some point, we do what we can in our own families, in our own lives to be our own example. But also, you just got to turn it over, right? You got to turn it over and say, you know what? There is a greater power. Hopefully, more people will be inspired. You made the good point. Was it the Aztecs or the Incas?

The Spanish came and tried to convert Central America and Mexico for decades. And they were ineffective. For a long time. Until one of the converts, Juan Diego, actually had a vision of Our Lady. But the Aztecs were brutal. I mean, they were pagans. They did child sacrifice. They had a lot of weird sexual perversions as well in that culture. It was a really, really difficult culture for the Spanish Catholics to penetrate, to break through. They couldn't until a lady came. And then you had Juan Diego and you had the tilma. If you don't know the story of juan diego

that's something you can look up the story of juan diego and and our lady of guadalupe why that was i mean it literally changed the history of the the western hemisphere and we still have the tilma and you can go see it and the story of the tilma is absolutely amazing modern science can't explain the tilma that i believe is a mexico, which by the way, I was in Mexico city and I did not go see it. I've never seen it. Um, but the, the, the colors that the colors didn't exist. Um, when, when the lady appeared to Juan Diego and, and the, I mean, I think people have taken strands of the tilma and it's almost regenerated itself. It's in perfect form. And it should have actually disintegrated by now and it's still there. But again, in a matter of one decade, what the Spanish couldn't do in multiple decades, basically everyone converted. They're all

Christians. And so I think it's remarkable how birth of faith and religion can happen. And as I look at this season, and again, I don't want to be depressing, but this season of Christmas, as we look at this dark time, as our days are shorter and there's more darkness, and we have this great light that comes into the world that we celebrate, I do think, and I loved our conversation yesterday with Raymond Arroyo, who is like, I am going to celebrate. I'm going to run into Christmas. I'm going to celebrate Christmas.

And there's a guy who has a joy around his faith. And again, I think that joy that we get at Christmas is also shared with our kids. It is the traditions, the cookies and the pie, you know, and in Christmas trees and Christmas music, it's, it's, it's all of that, but it's also something more than that, that we share, you know, with them at this, at this time where, where, um, the reason for the season, which is Jesus. We'll have more of this conversation after this. Bet MGM is an official sports betting partner of the national hockey league and has your back all season long from puck drop to the final shot, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas.

That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite skater, or your style, there's something every NHL fan is going to love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your hockey home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sports book worth a celly and an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. they don't just talk about people who have lost religion and are no longer affiliated, but they talk about those who are going to church are increasingly becoming part of these non-denominational churches. So these are churches that, you know, there may be a good Christian farmer or a good Christian plumber or a good Christian businessman, and he just decides to start a church and they're not affiliated, say, with the Methodists or the Presbyterians. They just start their own churches, non-denominational. And a lot of them turn it.

They are very popular. They become these mega churches. And unlike, say, like the Catholic Church or the Presbyterian Church, where you register in your parish and you're connected to that specific parish, the trend among these mega churches and these big non-denominational congregations is there is no membership. You come and people are friendly and they love you and they love on you and you have this, you know, beautiful service every week, but there's no, there's not that sort of, you know, organization and commitment. A lot of people are very attracted to that. One of the criticisms of it is that, you know, easy come, easy go, too, right? Like, you know, there's no membership. It's also easy to fall away from those kind of churches. I don't know if that's true or not.

and for you and I that those traditions are very mooring for us they're really grounding for you and I it's you know ritual is sort of built into the human experience feeling connected I mean I always think it's so when we got married one of the things that really kind of hit me we don't we seem so different you're from Wisconsin and you're this you were this lumberjack attorney from this very you know small small, small town, small town, big Irish Catholic family. And, you know, I had this other experience of, you know, you know, having, you know, Mexican and Spanish parents and this, all these different traditions. What was fascinating to me is that our connection was in the church, right? That you and I could go to mass together. We had that same experience and that we could trace our own families back. You know, St. James, you know, famously evangelized the peninsula of Spain. And then we just talked a little bit about

Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe who converted Mexico and both of those traditions. I think about how far back those conversions came to my people. And then St. Patrick so famously converted the island of Ireland. Those were some really stubborn pagans on that aisle. Well played, well played. Your people were more pagans than the heart-ripping Aztecs. Yeah, and St. Patrick, he worked really hard and he converted the Irish. But Catholicism goes back so many generations in both of our families in that connection. And that connection we have every week when we go to Mass and we bring our children and we bring them around.

And so to me, that tradition is really important. I think some people in these mega churches, while I applaud them for going to church And I'm happy that they're Christians and they're on fire. Oftentimes, a lot of times more on fire with Christ than a lot of people in organized Christian religions. I do feel like that's something that wouldn't work for me because ritual and tradition is very, very important to me. And the longevity of that tradition um means something to me because i feel like it's all been it's all been you know tried and tested and i it stood the test of time

and that what i'm doing is worthwhile now there's a lot of traditions around christmas and in england uh one of the most beautiful traditions they have are the christmas carols sean we used to go to a place called up in Bayfield, Wisconsin, that would carry on these old English, yep, the Rittenhouse. And they would have what they called the sale. And we would go for Christmas dinner. It's a Duffy tradition. Every Christmas they go. It was a gift to my parents, to any kid that wanted to go. And some kids- Their adult kids and their spouses. Did not want to go because they don't want to hear old Christmas music.

Oh, it's the most beautiful thing ever. It really is this little gem of a place up in Bayfield, Wisconsin. I always thought that was one of the most beautiful Christmas gifts that your parents gave, which was a day for the whole family to get together at the Rittenhouse. And you had this beautiful lunch and this amazing acapella group singing old English Christmas carols inside this beautiful Victorian house. It's up in Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was absolutely amazing.

And now, though, these Christmas carols, sadly, Sean, are getting a facelift. You know, the woke group, you know, they don't leave anything alone, do they? And so the Church of England has decided that Christmas carols, the old English Christmas carols, the old English Christmas carols from the 16th and 17th, 18th century just aren't woke enough. They're not inclusive enough, Sean. And so they're changing the lyrics. Can I give you an example?

Sure. So you know that song, God rest ye merry gentlemen. We love that song. God rest ye merry gentlemen. There's nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day. And it goes on. But now they've changed the lyrics.

This beautiful 17th century Christmas carol now goes, God rest you also women who by men have been erased. It's not even that great. God rest you queer in questioning. And it goes on from there. So they want to include gays and people who are questioning and they want to include women. And in the process, they're destroying these songs. And so some other churches, the Roman Catholic Church in England, for example, has pushed back, Sean.

And they say, you know, this is wrong. There's beauty in these traditions. These songs unite us. These songs that unite us not just to each other, but to our past and to our ancestors. And we shouldn't mess with them. But boy, wokeism is injecting itself. You gentle man. I mean, listen, you have to want to see exclusion in that. We're all, I think everyone is covered under that phrase. And we want to go, no, no, we don't have women, men, transgender questioning. It's like, give me a break.

You're looking to find some separation here. You're not looking to build upon. You're looking to destroy. Again, destroy that connection to the past. Destroy the history of the past. Can I go in a little different direction with you, though, on this podcast? You can do whatever you want. Thank you.

Because my frustration, I'm going to give you one frustration I have around Christmas right now. So you talked about our traditions and the things from very different lives that we had, but our Catholic faith connected us. And at Christmas, there's one other thing that connected us about our, that we had many traditions that were similar. But one of them was the fact that both of our families ate lamb. On Christmas.'t that funny? It is kind of funny. And we've morphed that into a new tradition. We went to the White House when I was a newly elected member of Congress, and we realized they serve these amazing lollipop lamb chops. And they were delicious. If you go at Christmas, I think they serve at all the Christmas parties at the White House. And they are. Not even at Christmas, but they're delicious.

So doing a leg of lamb is kind of hard to cook. It's like a lamb can get dry. It can. So we've done this. You have to worry about it like you worry about the turkey. Lollipop lamb chops, which are delicious. And we've done them. And they've been a little.

So easy to make. They're like two minutes on each side. Yeah. And they taste so good. And they're so soft. Yeah, they're delicious. So they're more expensive than getting a ham. They're more expensive than a turkey. And we've just made that sacrifice over the course of our Christmases together. Well, this year, last year I went and got these lollipop lamb chops and they're expensive. But this year I went to get lollipop lamb chops and the first ones I was going to get, I guess they're like New Zealand lamb chops and it's

like all bone and no meat. So they're expensive and hardly any meat on them. A pack of like eight ribs on there, they were way too expensive. Anyway, to get ones with meat, it was going to be like $300. I'm like, you'd be kidding me. No way. We're like, we'd be kidding me. No way. We're like, we need a new solution. Inflation is killing some of the traditions. Yeah, that's true. That we've had.

Definitely killing the lollipop, lamp shop tradition. The prices have gone up. Anyway, that's my pet peeve this Christmas. And you know what? So I'm going to give you the other side of this inflation thing. But the Christmas tree is really expensive

this year as well. Right. And listen, I agree. There are people making a lot of adjustments around Christmas this year, whether it's in what they give, how much they give, the food they serve, the decorations that they're willing to buy, or maybe they're going to have to make them instead of buying it. There are all kinds of adjustments. I actually think that there's a silver lining in that. And I think that as we simplify Christmas, and in this case, I mean, these are dropping temperatures that we've never seen before, record level lows.

And the massive snow or ice that's coming right over Christmas. You have old people on fixed incomes who aren't going to be able to heat their homes. I think that what it's doing is it's increasing the suffering. It's meaning that other people, neighbors and family are going to have to step up for those who, who can't at this time of year. And maybe it's going to have us focus more on the baby Jesus. Um, and the reason why we gather at Christmas time, uh, you know, instead of all the stuff that we feel now, listen, I love all the Christmas, you know, cheer and, and all the cheer and all the extra trimmings and everything that come with the season.

But I think we ought to also make sure that we're looking out for other people. Who in our lives needs extra help? Who do we know that is struggling at this time of year? Maybe it's financial, but maybe it's also just emotionally. So people have lost a family member during or a loved one during Christmas at one point, and this is a hard time of year. There's some silver lining, Sean, in all of this. Well, I had a little different silver lining. I look at the pandemic and as hard as the pandemic was and challenging, you saw families start to spend more time together. You start to go like, oh, we're all at home together. And actually, we actually like to

be together. We're actually, if they didn't, they got a divorce. Two divorces went up during that time. But a lot of people go, actually, I like seeing my kids. I like my spouse. This has been actually, which is why a lot of people haven't wanted to go back to the workplace. They want to keep what they have. They want more of that work-life balance. They do. And so maybe at this time, it's wonderful to have all those extra things around this season and to give a little more. It's wonderful. It should be special. I mean, it's an amazing holiday. But really, a lot of the specialness of celebrating this season of the birth of Christ is the fact that we're together with the ones we love the most. It's with our families and our kids

and the extension of our families getting together and just being together is so important. And for modifying, you know, going to ham instead of having lollipop lamb chops, oh God, who cares? We're all together. That's right. You know, Sean, with the weather, so we do Christmas Eve here and then my sister and my brother who lives all the way in Dubai, he was going to my sister's house for Christmas Eve. And then they said, well, you know what? We'll come over on the 25th.

Which by the way, it never happens to us. We just do it. Christmas is just us. It's usually just us. We're, we're a big enough crew, right?

We're like a tribe. But this year, my sister said, well, we'll come over on the 25th. We want to see all the kids after Santa comes. And she's got four adult kids of her own. And,

and then my, my brother has two kids as well. Anyway, because of the weather, long story short, instead of coming on the 25th, where we know the weather is going to be really treacherous, everyone's coming early. They're coming on the 23rd. And so we're all going to have the 24th and the 25th. It's all going to be here with that. How many people would that be, Sean?

11. That's a lot. Yeah, it's almost like 20 people, 20 some people. It's all going to be here with God. How many people would that be? Sean? 11. That's a lot. Yeah. It's almost like 20 people, 20 some people. Yeah. I'll stay in with us. All staying here at the house.

It's going to be crazy, um, wild and chaotic, but that's, that's what it's about. And I haven't met this person yet, but I, I,

if I, if I did, I would, I'd make the invitation and you guys might know this person, but with the weather you mentioned and that person who might be a neighbor or you might know them from church, but they might've had their kids flying in or someone, their people are going to fly into their home or they were going to fly out, you know, to see their family and they can't, and they might be by themselves because of what's happening with the weather. What a great time to say,

you know what? I know you can't go on your trip or people couldn't come in to see you. I told one of our producers, a young producer, my friend Griffey, and I told him because he's flying out to Ohio to be with his family. And I said, listen, if you get trapped, you are not spending Christmas in your apartment in New York City. I said, you are coming to my house. If I find out that you couldn't get out of New York City and you went to your apartment, you didn't come to the Duffy house, I'm going to my house. If I find out that you couldn't get out of New York City and you went to your apartment, you didn't come to the Duffy house, I'm going to be mad. He's like, I promise if I get stuck, I'm coming to the old Griffey might have a shot coming

over. Yeah, I heard the weather's going to be bad. You'll need a break from the Duffy clan after. Yeah, you might want to go to the Duffy bar. That's true. Well, listen, I just I again, I read the I read this article with these stats and the and the fall of faith in America. And, you know, it was a little bit depressing, but I think there's so many good people out there that, that are doing the right thing.

And I just think we have to keep faith and we have to. And keep those traditions alive. If you're, you know, you remember you used to do something as a kid and you hadn't been doing it with your family, bring it back. You know, you can revive those traditions. And also more importantly, if you believe that Jesus Christ was born on Christmas day, go to church, figure out a way to go to church. If you're homebound, of course you should watch it on, on, on live stream on, on, on TV. But there is just no replacement for going to church. Gathering the kids and getting dressed up as difficult and as complicated as that can be when you have a lot of kids and they're little and need a lot of help. There's nothing like sending that message to your kids.

And you can make it work. So we go to mass on Christmas Eve. I love to go to midnight mass. I had to compromise when I got married because my husband won't let me go to midnight mass anymore. Well, I won't because there's complications around that that I can't mention on this podcast. But, you know, we go so we go to four or four thirty mass and we come home and we cook our dinner and we have this. Complication is Sean needs sleep. Well, the problem is, you know, I can't stay up so late because Santa has to come around at some point. And, you know, anyway, then I get no sleep and then the next day is rough. And then, you know,

then if you were to go on Christmas day for us, it's hard because the kids are all, you know, crazy and wild and then to try to corral everybody and feed everybody and then get them off to church is complicated. So one of the few things I've been able to win out on Rachel is to say, let's do our mass on Christmas Eve at four or four 30. And it's actually worked out pretty well. We do a really late dinner and we stay up late and we sing carols. It's really fun. So listen, I hope you all have just a happy Christmas that you really bring the meaning of this season back and celebrate your family.

Savor it and let it linger and let the little stuff go. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy your family. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. We're going to. We're going to have a lot of fun, a lot of craziness. There's Skippy Barks in the background. I'm not sure if you can hear him.

And the baby cries in the background too. We can't wait. We love this time of year. And to all of you, we wish you a Merry Christmas. And thanks. You know, we've started this podcast recently recently and we're just so grateful that so many of you have tuned in. We've had it, we've had a ball doing it. It's interesting. We, we plan on sitting down and doing a 15 minute podcast and we sit here and talk for a half an hour, but I love

it as well. And it's been a really enjoyable and thank you all for joining us. And, and again, to all of you, a Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,mas everybody if you like our podcast you can rate review subscribe wherever you get your podcast um give us high marks and uh until next week when we're going to ring in the new year by the way rachel's gonna we're gonna ring in the new year from nashville sean and i'm gonna come and see you and sean's gonna come and we're gonna be at the wild horse saloon um if you can't be with us at the wild horse saloon in nashville tennessee well you can't be with us at the Wild Horse Saloon in Nashville, Tennessee, well, you can turn on Fox and me and Sean and Will and Pete

and Jimmy Fala and we have just an amazing group of musicians as well. We're all going to be there. We're going to be ringing in the New Year and we'd love for you to ring it in with us. So make sure you watch Fox News on New Year's Eve.

It's going to be a lot of fun. All right, everybody. Merry Christmas. Bye, everybody. Listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas.

Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com.