From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Sean & Rachel Save Christmas

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

Sean and Rachel sit down to give a recap of their Thanksgiving dinner, and share their tips on how to prep for the holidays. Later, they discuss financial worries ahead of Christmas, why Americans should focus more on family during the holiday, and weigh in on the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon displaying a Christmas tree given to them by the Satanic Temple of Wisconsin. Follow Sean & Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm Sean Duffy, along with my co-host for the podcast, my partner in life, and my wife, Rachel Campos Duffy. It's great to be back at the Christmas, not the Christmas, the Kitchen Table. You know what, it's on my mind. I think it's on a lot of people's minds. We just got done with Thanksgiving. We're going to talk about Thanksgiving. We're also going to talk about, Sean, a story that I thought might have, okay, maybe it happened in Brooklyn. Maybe it happened in San Francisco, but it happened in good old Green Bay, Wisconsin. And that is, there's a Satan Christmas tree scandal, essentially a museum with a kid's

event for Christmas, the Polar Express, putting up a Satan Christmas tree. Unbelievable story. We're going to get to that because we're going to break down what happened. And I think what parents need to do, because if this is in Green Bay, it's everywhere. It's coming to your town. Yeah, I thought it was the Babylon Bee. And we're going to talk about how you could put Satan and Christmas tree together. But first, let's talk about our own Thanksgiving. It's interesting at our age and the number of Thanksgivings that you and I have done together, how we continue to learn. There's no perfection of Thanksgiving or Christmas.

You keep learning and perfecting. And I thought this was probably one of our best, but also different. We did some different things this Thanksgiving. But one of the best, most fun Thanksgivings that we've had. Well, I think that's one of the beauties of getting old. There's not a lot of great things that happen as you get old, but one of the things that happens when you put on 25 Thanksgivings is that you learn the hacks and you learn how to simplify and what worked and what doesn't and what to eliminate and what nobody likes to

eat and how to make this better and easier and also how to prepare for it so that it's not as stressful and you can actually enjoy. And so that's some, I think we're starting to see the fruits of that. I think we really experienced that. One of the hacks of course is, you know, you want to prep as much as you can. And by the way, this applies obviously for Christmas as well. You want to prep as much as you can before the day so that that day you're not running around like a chicken with your head cut off and things are sort of smooth and in place. So you want to make sure your house is clean ahead of time. You want to prep as much of the food as you can. And you want to think about dishes that can be made ahead. So our kids love macaroni and cheese, homemade mac and cheese on Thanksgiving.

And so, you know, we make that ahead of time. And by the way, as the girls have gotten older, I'm also able to delegate. You're in charge of this dish. Here's the recipe for that. You're in charge of this dish. Here's the recipe for that. I found a place. I know you thought it was too expensive, Sean, but the pie place at the farm that does the pies does the pies better than me. And so this year I just said, their pies were just

better than mine. So I'm just going to take that off my plate. And I know you didn't like the price of the pies, but we did it. The other thing, I think it's a major hack that you can do is set the table or the day before, because then that day you're not stressing when you're, when you're trying to get everything ready in the Turkey and this, and is time everything, right. Just not having to worry about the table and forgetting, you know, the serving utensils or the salt and the pepper, all that's done ahead of time. And so it's just there waiting for whenever the food is ready. That's a great, great mom hack. So first off, I'm all in on buying pies from somewhere because the pies take so much time. We've done them homemade and you've made homemade crust for me

before. I mean, it's a lot of work. But all the stuff you're doing to go buy pies, I think that makes the most sense, especially if you have a good place to go get pies from. Oh, this place does such a good job. But I will say, listen, they were not extra big pies. They were just a normal size pies. And I got the bill and I'm like, are these special pies? I thought they were special. I thought they were really expensive. And there's a lot of places that sell them now.

You can buy them. Here's the difference. The places that sell them cheaper, I don't love the ingredients that, I don't even know some of the ingredients that go into it so i'm kind of thinking about that and the ones they spend the all the money but the funny thing is everyone's favorite pie is avida's french silk pie and so she does the one pie that's it that's all she makes for pies and we buy the rest of them also um rachel made the stuffing for the turkey or had all the ingredients done for the

stuffing and then mixed it before we put it in the bird um but so that that went well that was a big debate too stuffing in the bird or out the bird because if you deep fry it or smoke your turkey you can't get the stuffing in the bird and we debated a lot about this because i do love a fried bird but sean loves the stuffing with the drippings that come from stuffing the bird. So we had a debate slash fight. We talked about that and we'll tell you how we resolve this. So I wanted to put my... Beautifully resolved. This is our new way of doing the turkey. It is. So I wanted to put the turkey in a bag and in the oven. So the bag, which is like a 1970s hack, I guess, will keep all the moisture in the turkey and then all the drippings come

into the stuffing. And then in the last 20, 25 minutes, you take the bag off and you brown the skin. However, the girls in the family said, no bag. We were afraid that that plastic would leach into our turkey. We just were like, no way. That's not what happened. Rachel said, I can't put a bag on it because the plastic will leach onto the bird. And then she got all the girls involved to then say, we can't do it. You think I lobbied the girls. The girls are super healthy. And they were like, no, we don't want that. So I went online. So I thought someone told me that you can actually use parchment paper. So you can wrap your turkey in a parchment paper, staple it. And then do the same thing. We told you that that'll hold

someone in hair and makeup. And so I guess there's. Who told you that? That's a great hack. It'll hold someone in hair and makeup. And so I guess there's paper bags that you can buy, but we did parchment paper. We wrapped all and stapled it together. So we created our own bag. This was the best thing. We buttered it, wrapped it in the...

The turkey was delicious. So when I cut the turkey, water shot out of it. Yeah, the juice. That's how juicy it was. And it browned beautifully because the parchment paper is was. And it browned beautifully because the parchment paper is thin.

And we took the parchment paper off. Right. And then at half, or was it like an hour before or 45 minutes before? Maybe 45 minutes. But it was still kind of browning through the paper. I was surprised by that. But yeah, it got that super golden. But here was the problem. So in the morning, we had,

I had made, actually I shouldn't say I did. My daughter, Lucia, made homemade buttermilk pancake mix the night before so that it would be easy to make pancakes in the morning. By the way, she got the buttermilk from the butter that I made in our kitchen. Yeah. So that was homemade. No, that's awesome. It was a homemade buttermilk pancakes. And so, but by the time, I mean, you know, you're always running a little behind. So the kids were starving and the little kids were starting to get hangry, hungry and angry. At the same time, they were like, well, you just think they want to eat. And so I just was like, you know what? In our old age, we've gotten what? Weak, soft. Soft, yes.

I just said, you know what? The turkey has another 45 minutes to go. Everyone's starving. Come into the kitchen. And we all ate pie first. Pie before dinner. Before dinner. By the way, 35-year-old Rachel would have never had pie before dinner. I would have been like so stressed.

And we're like, no, we have to do it the right way. But 52-year-old Rachel was like... So happy. Everyone got pie when they were starving and it tasted so good. So we sat down, we had pie. Then we finished up the meal, sat down and ate. And then instead of doing the dishes, we actually all went in. Did we watch a movie? We watched White Christmas.

Watched White Christmas. Which is one of our favorite holiday movies. And then the little ones started to doze off at the end of the movie. Then the little ones started to doze off at the end of the movie. And the rest of us, older ones, went into the kitchen and we cranked music. And we rocked out. We rocked out and cleaned the kitchen. And I have to tell you, that might have been the best part of the day for me. And I just think the key is one person, two people can't do it all.

You need, and especially if you have older kids, you need all the kids to participate and help with the cleanup. You don't want moms to be resentful. And exhausted. And exhausted and not want to have to do or dread it every year. So you got everyone together. You cranked the music.

We all, I mean, Valentina was up. She was the only little one that remained up. She was dancing and having a good time at the counter while the rest of us were dancing and cleaning it it was awesome it was yeah so we had a really good thanksgiving we hope all of you had a wonderful thanksgiving it's a great time for for family and for friends and i know that doesn't always happen for everybody i've heard a couple stories of people who didn't have the best thanksgivings i think it's always important to try to think ahead and plan ahead

and make sure you can spend it with some special people in your life. I think a lot of families who know someone who doesn't have a place to go, they open their homes up. You know, it's just saying, hey, come on over. We always growing up, whether it was Thanksgiving or Christmas, Sean. Join us. We always had an air, because we're a military family and we lived on the base always had a stranger at our table it was at least to us kids it was kind of a stranger it would usually be an airman that my dad knew who was away from home and lonely and he would always invite them over so we always had

an airman at our table who probably thought we were insane um but you know we uh we that was that so it was sort of a family tradition of ours and it doesn't happen every year but we always open our house up to say listen if you want to come on over love to have you come and I would hope that other people do that as well you know if you see that person because it's hard to be home alone on Thanksgiving or

on Christmas so if you know someone welcome them in it's always a really nice thing to do and it's they're another helping hand and it's a good heartfelt gesture but also you know just, welcome them in. It's always a really nice thing to do. And they're another helping hand. And it's a good heartfelt gesture. But also, you know, just my message to all of moms and dads out there that are putting these meals, these special occasions together, they're worth it. Every year will get better and easier.

You'll learn those hacks so that you can actually enjoy your family and not get caught up in too many of the details. But the older I get, the better. Maybe it's better too, because we have older kids. It is. There's more kids to help. There's more kids to help, but there's also, I just feel more organized and relaxed about it. Again, that flexibility to go, you know what, turkey's not ready. People are hungry. Maybe you have an hors d'oeuvre tray and everyone can do that, but we didn't have that at that moment. And it was just easier to put out pie and go, you know what? We all love pie.

Let's just have it now. We had some after as well. But I think that kind of flexibility and also just remembering and write those things down, the dishes that everyone liked best, but what didn't go over so well. Keep a little notebook, write it down, have your little folder. So as we print out the recipes, I find that, and I didn't know Rachel does this, but she'll pull out her, I don't know if it's a recipe book., have your little folder. So as we print out the recipes, I find that and I didn't know Rachel does this, but she'll pull out her, I don't know if it's a recipe book or a book. It's a little folder. It's like a little Thanksgiving folder. She'll pull out the recipes that she actually

likes. So if we print them off and it works out well, she'll all of a sudden find them, tuck them away and next year she'll bring them back out again. So you're not researching. But get as much prep so that you can enjoy because so many times moms are so exhausted, they can't enjoy. And then the most important thing, Sean, you do not go through that much

trouble. Put a feast on for your family to have everybody rush through dinner. So we just linger as long as you can at the dinner table. There was a problem. At least it was a problem I saw. So we had pie first. We finished off the meal. We sat down and ate. We had a little bit of wine. And I ate so much. You got tired. I got tired. But then I started to get indigestion.

I don't get indigestion, but I started to eat so much. I almost felt sickly. I ate so much, which normally I don't do. But I ate way too much and was feeling the effects of it. But everything was really good. It was a wonderful. There was a time It was a wonderful, from beginning to end, it just was amazing. We'll have more of this conversation after this. 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 and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at GuyBensonShow.com. We're moving into the holiday, into the Christmas holidays, and a lot of people are thinking about Christmas and what they and what they're going to do. And again, a lot of joy and happiness around Christmas. Also, a lot of stress and a lot of financial worries.

There is. And so especially under this Biden economy. So now we have the numbers from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. And what's interesting is Americans spent five percent more this Christmas than last Christmas. Why do you think? I'm going to come back to why I think it's happening. It was a head scratcher for me because I'm like, I know the economy is not as great. People are nervous about what's happening, but they're spending more money. And here's the kicker is that a lot of Americans are spending on their credit cards. It's not out of their savings account. They're spending that credit. And a stunning fact came out that

Americans that are spending this holiday season, 25% of them are still paying off things they bought last Christmas season. 25%. 25%. And so I think that we've come in, and you asked me why, why is this happening? We had John Carney on the bottom line yesterday, and he talked about this. Who is he? He's the Breitbart economist. Yes, I know him. Yes, he's fantastic. And I asked him this question. He said, listen, I think because people don't feel really great about the economy, unemployment is really low. They don't feel like they're going to lose their jobs.

And they're used to spending money with lower interest rates. Even on credit cards that, you know, you were getting, you know, it was still really high, but 11, 12, 13% on the credit card. Well, with rates rising, that spiked up, you know, well into the 20%. And so because they feel stable in their job, they feel okay spending on their credit cards. And when these rates rise, it, I mean, and we saw this when we were younger as well, all of a sudden paying, paying off a credit card eats up your disposable cash and all your money's going to debt and there's nothing left over and it becomes almost your own death loop of debt. And it makes you,

this is what we thought of. And we've gone through a lot of iterations on Christmas and what we do for Christmas and presents and spending. But again, I think trying to stick within your means is really important. And I do believe there's been this philosophy with what's happened with our government. Our government is $33.5 trillion in debt. We spend, you know, $500 billion, like, you know, we're batting an eye at it. Joe Biden's trying to let people get out of their student loan debt. So debt and repayment, I think there's been a societal shift in the way people think about it coming from the very top. And going back to maybe the way our parents and

grandparents thought about debt is going to be really important as, again, the economy, I think, is going to falter. Rates are going to continue to rise. By the way, a lot of Americans in this study also think that inflation isn't over. It's going to continue to burn through the economy. So it's important to go, hey, I should I should prepare and I should live within my means. But then that begs the question, well, Christmas is coming. A lot of money is spent on food, on gifts, on things like that. And so what is the answer? How do people balance that out, Rachel, in thinking through how they spend their money and what's a priority? Yeah, you know, it's been interesting. It's the worst that I think our country is, you know, the chaos in our country and the world, sort of like this feeling that we all have this uneasiness. And it's not just about the economy, it's just like the truth about our government how we are so afraid of our own government and don't really trust it anymore don't trust the institution just this bad feeling and the more that i have that sense i mean by the way if you haven't

listened to our podcast from earlier in the week you should it kind of explains that in easiness it was about control the guards you know sort of the globalist plans that are being set into motion to control us and this one world government. I mean, you should really listen to that podcast because it really goes into that. And that sort of stuff permeates, you know, that sense that we all have. And sometimes it's really hard to pinpoint what it is, but it's just a feeling. It's like the way a dog has a feeling that something's not right, that intuition. We all know something's not right. But it's foreign wars.

It's all the tension on American streets and campuses about those wars, this divide. And all the people coming out, the border, the crime, all these things are coming together to go, this doesn't feel right. Something doesn't feel right. And if it doesn't feel right. Something doesn't feel right. And if it doesn't feel right, now you have some time to plan for it, to prepare for it. Well, I'm just going to go in a different direction.

The more that I have that intuition, that sense that something's not right, I think about, I talk about how do we simplify our lives and become more self-reliant as a tribe, as a family, so that we can, you know, mitigate what I think are some bad things on the horizon. But also, I think more about God. I think more about my faith and my family and about what really matters. What I always say is the things that last, right? What I always say is the things that last, right? And so I think that plays into this conversation as we move from Thanksgiving into Christmas, these really bad financial numbers for our government, the inflation, but also these really terrible ledgers that so many American families are having, you know, 25% of them still paying off the debt from last year. So what should you do this year? And I think it's about simplifying. And really, I know you have people I talk about, oh, the Christmas is so commercialized. It is. And oftentimes, we all complain about it, but we participate in it. And it's like, really, I mean, of course, we want to think about that perfect gift for our loved one, because we want to make that gesture

that we thought about who is that person, especially important. You have nine kids, you know, that idea, they're not, I'm not going to get one gift for all of them the same, you know, it's like, they're all different and they all have a different interest and, and, and likes and dislikes. And so you want to have that attention to detail, but it doesn't have to be quantity. You want to have that attention to detail, but it doesn't have to be quantity. And oftentimes, I bet kids don't remember what they got for Christmas. It's more that one thing that showed a lot of thought into it. I just think simplifying this Christmas, making it more about the experience and about giving people the gift of your time versus, you know, I was actually really depressed when I heard the numbers about how I haven't bought anything for,

on the post Thanksgiving sales or Cyber Monday. I wanted to, but you know what? I ended up spending time with my family. I have no regrets about it. And I do think I'm going to try and simplify. And I think that's what so many of us, and really getting into the meaning of Christmas. You know, it's really about, you know, a little later in the show, we're going to talk about the Satan Christmas tree. This is where our culture has come to. And if you're not the one bringing the true meaning of Christmas, you know, the birth of Jesus, the word into flesh, into your own home.

Jesus the word into flesh, into your own home, if you're not the one creating or continuing the Advent traditions of our families, our forefathers, going into the Christmas season, if you're not doing that, I mean, you're really seeding so much. And in the end, you end up consumed by the consumerism because what's left? So a couple of things on this. And again, this might be a different experience for us than everybody else. But because we have nine kids, then there's birthdays and there's Christmases. And it's going on for 24 years for us. And you accumulate a lot of shit, right? And toys.

And it's like, and stuff that kids don't even play with anymore. And Rachel cleans toys out all the time. kids don't even play with anymore. And Rachel cleans toys out all the time. And so I think you made a really interesting point for kids to come downstairs and see a whole bunch of presents under a Christmas tree. That's really exciting. They love that. There's something about that. The story of St. Nicholas and Santa Claus is a beautiful story and the whole thing, the whole magic of it. No one is at all suggesting you not do that. No, no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying the quantity. A big Christmas tree full of gifts. And to do that, oftentimes there's a lot of things that you're buying stuff that they may

not really want. We've noticed sometimes they don't even play with some of the gifts they've received on Christmas. Sean, do you remember that Christmas where they opened all the gifts and then that feeling after all the gifts are opened and then you and I are just sitting on the couch, enjoying our cup of coffee and sort of basking in the post Christmas thing. And we look over into the other room because we had these French doors so we could see through the glass. And there was our at the time, I think he was probably four, four year old Patrick. And he had a plastic fork in his hand. And he was like, it was like it was a sword. And I thought, he just opened all these presents. And he was totally content. And just as Brian Kilmeade would say, within himself,

fighting with a plastic fork. I mean, we overestimate what they want, what they need. And we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. And to those families that are out there that are struggling this Christmas, just give yourself the gift of not allowing yourself to feel that pressure, to go there, to just realize that we all need a lot less than we think we do. I think there's a perception that if there are a lot of gifts, there is some excitement in that moment opening them. But the pain that you're going to feel for the next months, or as we've just said, 25% of Americans are still feeling the pain from

last Christmas for that, you know, half an hour of joy of opening a few presents. It's not worth it. Less gifts, but more meaning into the gifts. That's right, more meaningful gifts, more thoughtful gifts, gifts that they're going to want to use and play with or have use for well after Christmas morning. And again, that takes more time. And I also think you have to set your kids up expectation-wise, that Santa Claus is thinking about Christmas a little

differently this year and looking at some, you know, special things, not quantity, but kind of some quality gifts. Because, again, you want to have the kids set up for kind of what's coming for Christmas. But I do believe so often, you said it well, we buy into the consumerism that we so complain about. And it's that consumerism that sucks us in to get stuff that they're not going to use. It fits in the closet after Christmas morning. I'll give you two solid examples. So one was I gave you the fork example, but I'll give you a couple more examples. Santa knew that we had a child who was really loved to play animal hospital and would always put her little puppies around, her little stuffed animals, and she would

play animal hospital and get her siblings involved in animal hospital. And they'd go up to my bathroom and find the old bandages and wrap up their legs and all that. And so, yeah, they loved to play animal. And so I noticed that. I forgot. Animal hospital. Yeah, they love to play animal. And so I noticed that. I forgot about animal hospital. Remember animal hospital? Yes. And so what Santa did that year was Santa found a $3 box at Michael's

and turned it into like a doctor's medical box, bought a little stethoscope and some bandages and band-aids and put all of this together into the box. And, you know, you just said how I get rid of toys that they're not playing with or I don't get rid of them. I try and give them away as much as I can. Guess what's still in that toy closet? The animal box. Santa probably spent $10 on that, if that. And it's one of those gifts that's still there, that's still being used. It's now getting passed off onto Valentina.

That was one of them. The other one was, there was vintage, older versions of toys. I'm not talking about old toys. I'm just saying toys from our past that you can find at places like Michael's. So do you remember the stretchy man? Yeah. You had one as a kid? No, I wanted one. My parents didn't get it for me. Well, your son got a stretchy one. If you stretch it so much, it broke. And so Santa's gotten stretchy man like a couple of times. It's not very expensive. I mean, I think it's like

under $5. And it's very enjoyable if you're a four, five, six, seven year old boy. You know, Jack is still a fun game to play. I mean, there are things that you can do to just put more thought into what you're giving and getting. And it just, this idea that you have to buy expensive electronics or iPhones and all this stuff. This is our culture injecting this into the holiday. It's not really good stuff. But if someone wants a really expensive or more expensive electronic or scooter, whatever those things are, that's their gift. They don't need 10 gifts on top of it, right? Or maybe just smaller little things, yeah.

So anyway, that's kind of our thought is, again, we think about our economics, we think about where the country's going and making sure we're being good stewards of our money. But also then, this is the first point you made, what are we doing during the Christmas season? We're celebrating the birth of Christ. And we as parents, it's our job to make sure our kids understand, why are we all getting together? Why is there a Christmas tree? Why are there presents under the tree? What is the purpose behind all of this, which I think matters?

And if you look at kids, they do care about their families together together and they do care about the food and the energy and the excitement. And that makes them love Christmas as much or more than Christmas morning. I think, so one of the things that you could do right now to create that anticipation about Christmas, and it doesn't cost much at all. First of all, the feeling of anticipating,

embracing the Advent season, the four weeks leading up to Advent starts next Sunday, the weeks leading up to Christmas, really embrace that. So in our family, I've already ordered, again, not expensive, $6 Advent chocolate calendars. Already ordered, they're on their way this week. So you can get- you can get... You open the little door. You open the little door and get their chocolate. And that creates that anticipation. Little kids love it. By the way, had two sent to the older two kids. Oh, the three kids.

I'm sorry, three of them. Jacobita and Lucia. Yes, I did. So those... Because they remember getting those calendars and they love it. So that's one thing you could do. Get the Advent candles out and ready for the Sunday. And every night, you know, what we do at prayer time is we play O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

We turn down the lights. We light the candle and we sing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. And again, it's every night. What version? He loves the Enya version. Sometimes I put in the Gregorian chant version, but usually he shoots me down. But that is part of the tradition leading up. And then for us Catholics, we also have the Feast of St. Nicholas, I believe, on the 6th of December.

And so they put their little shoes by the altar and get a little chocolate and a few little things, sort of just a taste of just before Christmas from that. But, you know, other faith traditions that you have in your own particular denomination, but embrace Advent and the anticipation leading up to it. It doesn't cost much to do that, if anything. What your kids want is that feeling and those traditions being passed on. They don't need an Xbox. They don't need an iPhone. That's not what Christmas is about. So don't allow yourself to fall into that and maybe give the gift of financial sanity to your family for yourself, because that adds a lot of stress to your christmas so there's that we'll have more of this conversation after this we're speaking about christmas can we go

on to our next story yeah it makes me sad to leave this beautiful thought these beautiful christmas thoughts to go into satan christmas trees but yeah you lay it out i didn't i didn't know the story i hosted sunday morning futures uh last sunday and Mike Gallagher, who was on the show, texted me this story. Congressman from Green Bay. Thank you. Congressman from Green Bay. He also runs the China Select panel.

He's doing a great job. We have a podcast with him, by the way. If you haven't checked that out and go back, I think it was from last week or the week before. Great podcast, yeah. Great podcast. He's raising the flag on everything going on in China. Really smart.

And we were going to talk about China on the show, and he's like, hey, listen, I want to talk about this. I can't believe this is going on in Green Bay, Wisconsin. So here's the story. The National Railroad Museum, it's a private museum. It gets donations. It's a 501c3, so they take donations. It's a nonprofit. And every Christmas, the National Railroad Museum brings in, you know, different people to put up their Christmas trees and different decorations. And it's a celebration of the season, which is it's a beautiful thing that they all do in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Well, this year.

So they watch the Polar Express. Wisconsin. Well, this year... So they watch the Polar Express and... Yeah, so kids and families come in, they see all the different Christmas trees. All the different trains. Because it's a train museum, Polar Express, the Christmas movie. I think they play the movie and all the kids come in, maybe in their PJs, who knows? And so it's a really exciting thing in Green Bay. Small town, listen, Green Bay, great football team, or usually a great football team, maybe not this year. But it's a small town. It's 120,000 people. And this year, though, they brought in a satanic Christmas tree. Christmas is our holiday. We're celebrating the birth of Christ, who actually conquered Satan.

waiting the birth of christ um who actually conquered satan why on earth would they allow a satanic christmas tree which those words don't even go together you can't have a christmas tree that's satanic so was there was there let me let me ask question was there a satanic group or some sort of anti-christian group in green bay, hey, if you're going to have this event, we need our tree there too. Was that it? No, because if you're a government entity, they may be able to make that argument. Say you're using public government funds, you have to allow everybody. That's right. It's a 501c3. It's a... So you're saying that the manager of the museum just said, this is a great idea. Let's have a satanic tree and a Christmas tree. Absolutely.

And so this satanic Christmas tree had obviously red lights on it and ornaments saying, Hail Satan. Mike Gallagher on the show said that the display was akin to waving a Hamas flag inside a synagogue. that the display was akin to waving a Hamas flag inside a synagogue. What frustrates me is that nothing is sacred anymore, especially with Christians. Listen, you can go have your Satan day. Do your Satan thing. I'm opposed to it, but go do it. Why do you have to bring Satan into our celebration of the birth of Christ?

What is it going to undermine us to have little kids and families go see Christmas trees and all of a sudden be whacked upside the head with a Satan tree? What is the purpose behind organizations allowing this in? And again, I think you need bolder leaders. And by the way, it's important to go, who serves on the boards, right? And sometimes conservatives are like, I coach baseball and I work all day long and maybe we do some hockey and liberals actually get on these boards. And this is how you get things like this to happen.

We all as a community and as a group, we have to think through, hey, listen, serving on these boards truly matters. When was the event? It's through the Christmas season. So, okay, I see what you're saying. I thought it was like for a viewing of the Polar Express that day, they are leaving the tree up throughout the Christmas season. Throughout the Christmas season. I would love to know, great question, who's on that board? What kind of pressure are they now getting from the community now that this has gone national? Two, I would like to know, what were their numbers of visitors last year versus what will their numbers of visitors be at the end of this Christmas season? then? So I don't know the answers to those questions. Yeah, I mean, we don't know yet.

But I will tell you that this was somewhat flying under the radar. And as Congressman Gallagher said, some of the reporting in their local liberal newspaper, as most of them are liberal, was very accommodating. Mild. To the satanic Christmas tree. And it wasn't like outrage with the newspaper, which by the way, it should. And just as background, Green Bay, Wisconsin is a very Catholic community. There's a lot of churches. You drive through Green Bay on Sunday, even when there's a Packer game in Lambeau Field, churches are full. People go to church on Sunday. They wear their Green Bay Packer sweatshirts. Two churches. That was one of the most shocking things. When I moved to Wisconsin, I remember I was like,

why is everybody wearing a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt at Mass? But that's it. They'll go to Mass, but it's Mass Day, and it's also football. It's Becker Day. Becker Day. And so, yeah, you're right. It is a very Christian. We know lots of Catholics in the Green Bay area.

It is very Catholic. And here, this museum. How are they putting up with this? This museum runs on contributions. It runs on donations. And so I think what you are going to see is the community, many of them who have supported this museum. I think the old trains. And it's cool.

It's a cool museum, right? I mean, trains are in the kids love trains, right? And it's a museum of the history of trains, which is really awesome. I think I see people go, you know what I used to give, I would go to their fundraiser. I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm not going to give to a group that's going to celebrate Satan, especially on this revered holiday for Christians. I think the lesson in all of this is that, as you said, nothing is sacred and that it is open season on Christians. I think Jews are feeling that too, but I think the open season on Christmas has been going on for a long time. This is sort of like peak, right? A satanic Christmas tree at a museum for kids during the Christmas season. It's just, it's outrageous. But I think as Christians, we need to, one, as you said, you know, push back on these kinds of things, make sure that we are doing everything we can to expose it and to, sorry to use the left words, to defund

to expose it and to, sorry to use the left words, to defund these kinds of places. I literally don't like even going to stores that say, you know, that refuse to say Merry Christmas to me or say Happy Holidays or Happy Winter or whatever. I mean, I'm like, you know what, if you don't want to acknowledge the holiday that I'm shopping for, I'm just not going to shop with you. That's sort of how I feel about it. But especially when it comes to the, I mean, believe it or not, and if you don't know, the Christmas tree has a religious meaning behind it. And it has religious significance to Christians. It is not a holiday tree. It's a Christmas tree. It's a Christmas tree, and there's a reason why they wanted to appropriate that for the satanic thing, to tear down our traditions, to tear down things that are valuable and

meaningful to us as Christians. And again, you know, Sean, you always talk about it's really hard to take on all of what's going on, this breakdown in the society and our culture, the secularization and now satanization of our culture. But the most important thing is that you're keeping your traditions alive, your faith alive in your own home. True. But also you have a lot of power in your own community and you should fight like hell. This happens in your town. You fight because it's hard to deal with Joe Biden nationally or it's hard to deal in your state. But in your community, you organize and you go after them.

One thing that just finds me, and again, I was told by way of his book that Jesse Waters saved Christmas. And I'm realizing that Jesse, I want my money back because you didn't save Christmas. We have Satan trees in Green Bay, Wisconsin. There's a lot of work to be done. You have work to do, Jesse. It's true. When you, I mean, again, what was shocking to me was where it was as much about what was happening as to where it was happening. It was in San Francisco.

It wasn't New York. It's Green Bay, Wisconsin. It's Green Bay, Wisconsin. It's Green Bay, Wisconsin. But yeah, I do think that... No, but Rachel, too, I look at all the things, whether it's trying to transition little kids, you know, genitally mutilate. Like, just, I'm not going to... But you can walk through the things that you hear about in the news,

and no wonder they're celebrating Satan. No wonder they have a Satan Christmas tree. Yeah, the other part of it, Sean, is, you know, the innocence of children, the beauty of Christmas, the magic of Christmas. It's like adults, again, infringing on the childhood and the rights of children to just, you know, be children, to have their innocence, to have that protected by a culture and a society. And then as Christians to have this happen to us. You're right. We haven't fought back enough to protect our rights as Christians, to protect our traditions. And, you know, we're going to have a friend of ours on, Christy Stetsman, in the next couple of weeks before Christmas, we're going to have her on the podcast. She wrote a book, and this is kind of a deep tease here. She wrote a book called Deep, Deep Tease,

The Spiritual Cost of Political Silence. The Spiritual Cost of Political Silence. And I think as Christians, I really want to have her on because I think this is so important. You know, a lot of times people think that in their silence, they're being polite. In their silence, they're being respectful. But frankly, if we're really honest, a lot of times that silence is cowardice. They think they're being virtuous, but it's really about cowardice and about not wanting to be that one person who speaks up. Because a lot of times when you speak up, there's not a cavalry behind you ready to join you in speaking up. Sometimes you speak up and

you're alone. I remember that, Sean, when we had, who was that? What was the name of the officer who spoke up when the soldiers died in Afghanistan? Scheller. Scheller? Lieutenant, was it Lieutenant Scheller? I believe so. I think that was his name. We had him on Fox and Friends. And I asked him what surprised him most about his firing, because he was fired for speaking up and calling out just all the bad things that happened in the drawdown in Afghanistan, the 13 heroes that died, the new gold star families that were created because of the bad decisions of the generals and Joe Biden.

And I said, so what surprised you the most? And he said, I thought when I spoke up that others were going to join me and nobody was there. I spoke out alone. And of course, he ended up getting fired for it. And that is one of the risks you take. But there is a spiritual cost to yourself when you give in to that cowardice. We have to all speak up.

And if we all speak up, we can take back this country from this very bad path that we're on. But of course, the most important thing we can do is to keep our families true and faithful. And it does beg the question. I mean, if you look at the faiths of the world, oftentimes we're called to be better people, more giving people, more polite people, better citizens. And you look at the board of the Railroad Museum to go, what are you calling people to do? What do you want them to gain? What do you want in their hearts? If you're going to put up a, and again, I have a hard time saying satanic Christmas tree, but that's a phraseology that we're going to use. You're going to celebrate Satan? You want kids to

celebrate Satan as they come look at trains? What is wrong with you? What do you hope them to gain from Satan? What kind of community members do you want them to be if they celebrate Satan, like you are trying to get them to do by putting up this Satan tree? What about turning it back on them? Who are these weirdos? Who are these weirdos on the board who think it's appropriate to put a satanic Christmas tree in a railroad museum during Christmas where they're going to play the Polar Express and bring kids in? I hope no parents go in there. I hope every donor pulls their money. I hope every member of that board is shamed. And I hope all of us take this as a lesson about there is, as my friend Christy Setzman says, and we're going to have her on to talk about the book, there is a spiritual cost

to political silence. When there is something that happens to you as a Christian, as a human, when you don't stand up for the children, when you don't stand up for our culture, something happens to your own soul in that. It happens slowly, right? They try to do it under the radar, like we're going to bring in a Satan tree at Christmas. No, no. First it starts, Sean, with we're not going to allow the nativity scene to be shown. We're going to change Christmas concerts to holiday concerts and winter concerts. But this happens, and they want to keep it under the radar as they try to normalize it in a society. And we've seen that. And this is like, now they're not even hiding.

Now it's like, yeah, we want a satanic Christmas tree. That's not even something you would even think of 10, 15 years ago. They don't want people talking about it. They want it to happen. And they want to get some cover from the local newspaper. That's why I'm proud of Mike Gallagher to go, you know what? Good on Mike.

This should be covered. And people around the country should express their outrage, as well as people in Green Bay, Wisconsin, express their outrage to this museum. And it's leaders like Mike that will see this happening in their community and try to rally forces to go, you know what? More people should speak out about this. And I think because he told that story, because he brought it to the national press, I do think that this museum is

under far more pressure. These conservatives in Green Bay are well aware of it and voicing their objection, which is a positive. So, soul clap for you, Mike Gallagher. Good for you, Mike Gallagher, for bringing it. Good for you, Sean, for talking about it on Sunday Morning Futures when you filled in for Maria this past weekend. You know, there's a lot of stories to cover, right? The border, the economy, the hostage just came in. But these stories in little small town Wisconsin, they do matter because ultimately that's where people live. That's where families are dealing with this on a daily basis. And, and, and this is our own culture and we have to protect it. Not to steal Chevy's line, but these small towns are the heartbeat of

America. They, they make us, they make us what we are and we can't see them to the left. So listen to the, to the Satanist, not even the left, to the Satanist. Well, those two are the same sometimes. Yeah, sometimes they are. Well, listen, I love the conversation. And again, I want to thank you. Rachel put together a wonderful Thanksgiving. She is the heartbeat of our family making these things. But you saved the turkey. I did save the turkey.

That's my new way of doing it. Don't tell the Macklemore's. I do love my fryer and I do use it. But the master built fryer. And the master built smoker, both are great. But I want the drippings. But we had a great Christmas at Thanksgiving. Rachel made that happen.

I'm grateful for that. I did make the turkey happen, no doubt. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as we now prepare to go into the Christmas season. And again, I think it's important that we think about the meaning of the holiday and instilling that in our kids as opposed to the commercialization of a very

meaningful Christian holiday. Beautiful in all of our Christian traditions. Amen to that. All right. Listen, thank you all for joining us at our podcast. If you like our podcast, you can rate, review, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts. You can always find us at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you get your podcast. Please subscribe. We drop Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So start your week off. You know, Mondays and Tuesdays can be a little rough. But as you come into Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, share it with us.

We'd always love that. Until next time, you guys have a good day. 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. From the Fox News Podcast Network.

I'm Ben Domenech, Fox News contributor and editor of the Transom.com daily newsletter. And I'm inviting you to join a conversation every week. It's the Ben Domenech Podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to FoxNewsPodcast.com.