On this episode of Human Events Daily, we are joined by my wife Tanya Tay to talk about Christmas. We talk about how she grew up in the 80s and early 90s in Sweden and how she and her husband started their careers in the entertainment industry.
00:00:00.000So, we've been recording these episodes for Human Events Daily and really taking time over this Christmas week to step back and talk about what matters, what Christmas means to us, what the new year means to us.
00:00:17.640And I knew that I wanted to do an episode on Christmas itself, and I couldn't think of anybody that I wanted to have on the Christmas episode more than my wife, the lovely and beautiful Tanya Tay.
00:00:34.380Who, you know, and it's amazing, like, think about this. Here we are. We are recording this at the Turning Point Studios. We're in the podcast booth, this beautiful, beautiful studio that Turning Point has. And this is not how we started out doing, you know, shows like this. How was it when we started?
00:00:52.680Not at all. I remember just dragging you to the country concerts in the early days. Remember that time?
00:01:02.740But then what we did used to do on the Periscope. Remember, we would do Periscopes together, but that wasn't with, you know, the nice microphones and the lights and the beautiful video background and all. That was literally just like a phone in the spare bedroom. And it was just me and you talking.
00:01:23.160And often just on the go. I remember all the places we would go visit and you just turn it on without even giving me a notice. It's like, oh, we're on air.
00:01:32.840I might give you like a 30 second hammer. Hey, let's go live.
00:01:39.060But we used to do. And I remember and what people actually don't know is that when we when I very first started, when I was doing Rebel videos for Rebel,
00:01:48.740that it was you that was behind the camera that was in our spare bedroom, we're in our old house where you were turning the lights on, press and record on the camera.
00:03:42.280And that's that's really what, you know, coming into it from a Christmas, you know, and we're going to release this on Christmas Day.
00:03:49.100So if people are listening to it on Christmas Day, Merry Christmas, that is what we say, of course, Merry Christmas to everybody from us, the Posobics, to all of you.
00:03:57.200We hope you're having a great day, having a Merry Christmas.
00:03:59.860Maybe you're on your way to mass or church and or maybe you just finished it.
00:04:03.560Maybe you finished wrapping up the presents.
00:04:11.100Well, some people are like some people are still wrapping them on Christmas morning.
00:04:14.760We don't have to name any names, but I may have gotten up a little bit early on a few Christmas mornings to do that.
00:04:21.960But I wanted to talk about how and for people who don't realize this is that Christmas in Eastern Europe isn't as big as it is in the West.
00:04:34.240So for you growing up, Christmas wasn't so much of this of the holiday with the tree and the lights and the presents and all of it.
00:04:42.220But one thing that you have said is that growing up in Eastern Europe and for people who don't know, and I think everybody knows this, but, you know, there's always that one person.
00:05:10.260So, but growing up, what was, and also, by the way, you know, since we're talking about this, you know, so I grew up Catholic, but you grew up Orthodox.
00:05:19.560So for in Orthodox Christmas, it's not December 25th, is it?
00:05:26.040So to everybody who is from Eastern Europe, it's not Christmas that is to the same scale or level.
00:05:36.020It's actually first comes New Year's and New Year's Eve and then New Year's Day is huge.
00:05:44.280So the whole month of December, I remember just getting ready for New Year's, getting all excited, doing all the plays and shows in school.
00:05:57.180And then dad would bring a tree around December 30th.
00:06:04.900So it was not even, we were not talking about this huge celebration until very last few days of December.
00:06:12.780And then maybe December 31st, we would put up the tree, do all the lights.
00:06:18.620And then January 1st is a huge day when you would wake up in the early in the morning and open up all your gifts.
00:06:29.940Like the first of the year started with all the presents.
00:06:33.280And so in Orthodox Christmas, so I want people to be clear about this, it's New Year's comes first and then Orthodox Christmas is January 6th.
00:08:01.700And you, for five, and just to give a little context, it's not your typical Catholic church where you have seats for everybody, where people can just sit on the bench or kneel.
00:10:59.040And, but, you know, getting back to Christmas so that you're here in the U.S., you've been here 16 years.
00:11:05.160What was it like, you know, kind of experiencing Western Christmas and, you know, sort of learning the more Western Christian Christmas traditions?
00:11:16.020I remember how much I was impressed by Christmas.
00:11:21.680The first, the very first Christmas, because late November, suddenly all the stores had all the Christmas lights and Santas and all the ads going on about.
00:11:47.200But then I really got into the whole Christmas tunes.
00:11:50.920And I remember started learning some of my first Christmas songs.
00:11:55.360And to this day, I love turning my radio on while I'm driving with boys somewhere and making sure they hear all the tunes, because that's the spirit of Christmas.
00:12:05.580I've always said that for Christians, by the way, like for 11 months of the year, the secularists are like kind of in control of the radio waves.
00:12:13.060But then December, the Christians just dominate, just absolutely dominate the airspace with that Christian Christmas music.
00:12:21.180And you're sure there's lots of secular songs out there.
00:12:23.600But when you hear Away in a Manger, when you hear Oh, Holy Night, when you hear Little Drummer Boy, when you hear all these ones, I mean, it's come on.
00:12:41.320One Christmas tradition for me that I always have is that, so my birthday is 10 days before Christmas.
00:12:49.920And my mom always told me the story that, so here she was, you know, with a baby just 10 days before Christmas, 23 years old.
00:12:58.840And she, you know, I was, I guess, you know, they're in the hospital, they're in Pennsylvania, and that I was, you know, just crying, baby crying, and that she started singing the first song she could think of that she sang Silent Night to me, and that she would sing that every night to me while we're, even before she brought me home.
00:13:18.620And so for me, whenever I hear Silent Night, I always kind of, it always makes me think of my mom, and it always makes me think of that story, and just how special that is, and then how that sort of became a Christmas tradition for me personally, in addition to, you know, all the other longstanding Christmas traditions.
00:13:40.680And now here we are, where, and I guess people don't know, but, you know, here we are, that we had our second son, AJ, was born on December 3rd.
00:13:50.140So I have two December birthdays, plus Christmas.
00:13:57.120So my Christmas story with our little boy is, I remember coming home from the hospital without AJ, our youngest son, and the first thing you went and did, you got a Christmas tree, and you did a great job with putting up all the lights, and you wanted us to feel like suddenly the anticipation is over,
00:14:24.360and the actual celebration could begin, and the first few weeks, anybody who is a new mom will know they're the toughest, and one of my favorite things to do was when my little boy would make me up in the middle of the night, 2, 3 a.m., sometimes multiple times a day, I would just, I would turn on all the lights on the Christmas tree, and I would watch all the blinking,
00:14:50.500and one of the traditions that we have, we always put an angel on top of our Christmas tree.
00:15:01.080So I would sit there in the middle of the night with my little boy, with the Christmas lights on the tree, and the angel, and that just, a story I hope I will tell our little boy one day.
00:15:15.640When he's a little older to remember that, that every night, and I remember, well, the reason I know is because I would wake up in the morning, and then I'd go to your Instagram stories, and I would see, because you would always put the time that you were up, here he is at 4 a.m., here he is at 5 a.m., next day it's 3 a.m., and it's 2 a.m., and that's like your little way of letting me know, just so you know, because I'm a pretty good sleeper, and no, but I've noticed this before.
00:15:43.080I have noticed, I know, right, I know, well, that's because I sleep on MyPillow, with the delightful MyPillows of MyPillow.com promo code POSO, got it in, told you I was going to get it in, but, but, but, but, but that being said, it's, I've noticed, though, at times, like, I might be up working or something, and when I say working, I mean, like, trolling Twitter or whatever,
00:16:04.200I've noticed that he can make, like, and even with, with Jack-Jack, with our older son, it was the same way, they can make the tiniest squeak, and you're immediately up, right, and it's like, and I'll turn over and look, I said, wait a minute, like, that was enough to wake you up.
00:16:21.700That was not me, as a teenager, or even an adult, I was always such a sound sleeper.
00:16:29.300Because you're usually a sound sleeper.
00:16:30.900I kid you not, you could have a party in the room next door, and I would be a sound asleep, not a worry in the world.
00:17:17.340Does it, because I've seen you, like, I didn't think we were going to talk about this, but okay.
00:17:22.480Because I've noticed, though, that when one of the boys is crying or upset or something, like, for me, it's like, okay, there's something I got to deal with.
00:17:33.940There's a problem, you know, does he need to be clean?
00:17:55.500And just to give you a little perspective, the bond was building for nine months that I was carrying both of our boys.
00:18:03.980So I guess that's something that, on a much deeper level, happens between a mother and a child.
00:18:11.540But in some sense, it probably has a survival aspect to it because that's how that bond and that connection helps the little baby make it through in this world.
00:18:27.440And the mom is the vessel that the baby uses to make it through.
00:18:36.820And then suddenly this huge connection, it took my baby to make one squeaky sound or a little cry, and I would be a mama bear the second that happened.
00:18:49.600No, I mean, it's, it's, there's this, this deep, emotional, spiritual, biological, physical, physiological, and metaphysical connection that, you know, between them and everybody knows that, right?
00:19:03.680You kind of intuitively know, okay, the mother and child have a specific connection.
00:19:08.000But when you see it, and for you, it's when you're experiencing it, it's just triggering and kicking off all of these things that you've always had inside you.
00:21:33.900But this is the way out that you have now been sent this, the, the savior, the king, the king of all kings, the king of the entire universe.
00:21:45.480And brought in, not, you know, descending from a giant golden staircase with flowing robes and armies behind, you know.
00:21:55.340But they do say, and, you know, of course brought in a manger in the most humble of beginnings that anyone's ever had or could possibly have.
00:22:05.980And, you know, to me, when I think of the meaning of Christmas, it's, it's hope, right?
00:22:11.260It's hope that you live your life this way, you follow him, you, you read the teachings of that king, you read the teachings of that Lord.
00:22:22.680And it's a guideline that he gave us in the entire Bible, of course, is a guideline that we've been given, you know, to live your life.
00:22:32.020And this is the entire point of Christmas, the entire point of why we celebrate, why we go through the motions every year.
00:22:37.900And it, and even going through those motions gives you the same type of hope and the same type of joy.
00:22:47.440But it also is a tradition that, like you said, it was handed down from your parents, it was handed down to me from my parents, we still have some of the old VHS videos of my dad and my mom and me and, you know, pushing me around in a little wagon in front of our tree and in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and, you know, giving me a little fire truck and everything and seeing how I was.
00:23:11.540And my dad, it's very early on this, but he, he was always filming whenever we around doing family stuff and he had the camcorder going or he put it up on the tripod.
00:23:20.820I just, I could sit and watch those forever.
00:23:22.420I was always so jealous because my family did not really have the means to do that, but I remember.
00:23:29.220Well, the Soviet Union didn't really have VHS and VHRs and everything.
00:23:33.000Seeing all your childhood albums and seeing all the videos, it was, it was so precious.
00:23:41.520Not to get incredibly political, but because, you know, we, we talk about, you know, politics and communism and freedom, et cetera, et cetera, but, you know, humanize it, right?