Andy Cohen started off the first night of Hanukkah on an extra bright note. The Bravo personality shared a photo celebrating the Festival of Lights as he and his daughter, Lucy Eve, 7 months, and son, Benjamin Allen, 3 1/2, lighting the first candle of their family’s menorah.
“🕎 Happy Hanukkah from my family to yours 🕎,” the single father captioned the glowing family photo posted on Sunday.
Later in the evening, Cohen took to his Instagram stories to talk with Ben about the Empire State Building, which was lit up with special colors for the holiday, per People.
“Look at the Empire State building. Do you see what colors it is?” Cohen asks Ben.
“Yeah, it’s so beautiful,” Ben responds.
“It’s blue and white, do you know why?” Cohen asks. He then explains to his son that “It’s for Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah!”
This might be the first year Cohen is celebrating Hanukkah with his daughter, but it isn’t the first time Cohen has celebrated the holiday with his son.
“We light the candles every night and he gets a little something,” Cohen previously told TODAY of his family’s Hanukkah tradition. “Ben already thinks lighting candles is really special,” he added.
Cohen explained that as a boy growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, his parents put out eight wrapped presents — one for each night of Hanukkah — and that he and his sister were allowed to open one present a night.
And this is a tradition Cohen is continuing with his own children — even though he admits that Santa can be hard to resist for kids as young as his. “Santa Claus is really compelling,” the father of two admitted. “I just want to take sure that Ben gets most of his presents on Hanukkah and not around Christmas. I think that will continue to put the emphasis on Hanukkah,” Cohen said.
The Watch What Happens Live host explained how he is proud of his Jewish heritage and how it is “so much more than going to temple,” to the Atlanta Jewish Times back in 2015.
“It’s about who you are and how you live and how you communicate and certainly how you eat. Anyone who watches my show sees what a part it is of my life,” Cohen said.
“I give a ‘Mazel of the Day’ every day at the end of my show. Bravo has created a whole line of Mazel merchandise based on me saying it every night on the show. I know it’s not the exact definition of mazel tov, but to me it’s like a shout-out. It’s something nice, something positive, so there’s a little luck in there too.”
Happy Hanukkah!
