(PatriotWise.com)- Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy and her husband Sean Duffy have released a new book called All American Christmas which is a compilation of essays from Fox News hosts who recount their favorite Christmas memories and stories.
Among the contributors are Maria Bartiromo, Steve Doocy, Peter Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade, Janice Dean, Geraldo Rivera, Lawrence Jones, Dana Perino, Bill Hemmer, Emily Compagno, Sandra Smith, John Roberts, John Rich, Lauren Green, Jesse Watters, Charles Payne, Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Shannon Bream, and Martha MacCallum.
On Monday, Fox News published an excerpt from Geraldo Rivera’s essay in which he describes how his family celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah — or “Chrismukkah.”
Geraldo’s father Cruz Rivera was a devout Roman Catholic from Puerto Rico. His mother was from a very religious conservative Jewish family in New Jersey. And since his parents came from very different worlds, Geraldo grew up celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah.
He writes that at first, it was a struggle for his family to find the right balance between his Catholic father and Jewish mother, but eventually, they got it sorted out. And while he concedes his family’s holiday tradition wasn’t very traditional, it did reflect who they were as a family. And in the end, their holidays were “filled with a lot of expressions of love” which Geraldo says is what the season is all about.
For several years, Geraldo writes, the one thing he wanted more than anything else was a Lionel train set. To him, nothing is more American than a train circling the Christmas tree. But his father didn’t make a lot of money working in restaurants and driving a cab, so it took several years before his parents were able to afford to get him the Lionel train set he so longed for. But eventually, he got it.
Geraldo writes, “I ran the hell out of that train.” And every few years, he’d get more train cars to add to his set. He writes that he was just as excited when he bought a train set for his grandson.