Andy Cohen is celebrating Hanukkah with the lights of his life.
On Dec. 18, Cohen shared on Instagram a photo of his 3-year-old son, Ben, and 7-month-old daughter, Lucy, marking the first of eight night of Hanukkah, or the Jewish Festival of Lights. In the picture, the Bravo exec and his two children,are gazing at their lit menorah.
The middle candle is known as the shammash, or helper candle, and it is used to light the other candles.
While chatting with TODAY.com in November, Cohen said that Ben first started noticing Hanukkah last year.
“We light the candles every night and he gets a little something,” Cohen revealed.
Cohen said when he was a little boy growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, his parents would put out eight wrapped presents and allow him and his sister to open one each night. Cohen is now carrying on that tradition with Ben and Lucy.
“Ben already thinks lighting candles is really special,” Cohen said. But, he noted that getting kids excited for Hanukkah can be "hard, because Santa Claus is really compelling."
"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.
Cohen said Ben's favorite toy is magnetic building blocks.
“It doesn’t matter how many you have, you always want more, because it just means you can build more stuff,” Cohen explained.
Cohen said he is proud of his Jewish heritage.
“Jewish culture … is so much more than going to temple. 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 told the Atlanta Jewish Times in 2015. "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.”
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