Dolly Parton will be home for Christmas this year — just like the title of her 1990 holiday album, Home for Christmas, suggests.
“I’ve sometimes missed Thanksgiving and other holidays, but I’ve never been away from Tennessee on Christmas,” the singer-songwriter recently told Good Housekeeping. In fact, her commitment to spending the holidays with loved ones in her home state was the inspiration for her latest children’s book Dolly Parton's Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas.
Dolly Parton's Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas
In this charming holiday story, Billy, a musical French bulldog, believes he won’t make it home for Christmas. He’s committed to performing in a special Christmas concert in another city. But in a happy twist, Billy finds a way to reunite with his family just in time for the holidays, proving that love and togetherness always take center stage.
“The book highlights all the extra effort that it takes to make spending holidays with family happen,” said Dolly, who founded The Imagination Library, a book-gifting program for children, in 1995.
Dolly's holiday plans involve multiple get-togethers between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but thankfully, she doesn’t have to handle all the hosting responsibilities herself. “My family and I will get together at different houses around Nashville each night,” she said. “One night we usually bake and decorate cookies and another night my sister Rachel will host a dinner at her place. I love to have a Christmas buffet with 70 or 75 guests.” But Dolly adds that “no Christmas is complete without cornbread sage dressing.”
Her Nashville-based family also takes a road trip. “We drive about 200 miles to East Tennessee to see some of our older family members who have trouble traveling,” she says. She carries food from house to house in tote bags — the gift that’s highest on her Christmas wish list this year. “I love baskets and tote bags,” she says. “In fact, I rarely travel with a lot of luggage — I prefer to put my makeup and other belongings in totes.”
Karen is a seasoned journalist who specializes in travel, book, lifestyle and food coverage. Cicero has visited almost every state with her family (look out Wyoming, she’s coming for you next!). She has spoken at several travel industry conferences, including PRSA and the Mid-Atlantic Tourism Alliance and was previously the senior editor at Parents. A mom who goes overboard for all the holidays, Cicero lives in the Christmas city itself: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
