Dolly Parton loves "everything" to do with Christmas
Dolly Parton loves 'everything' to do with Christmas
The 78-year-old country music legend - who has been married to Carl Thomas Dean since 1966 - has never been away from home during the holidays and relishes being able to get involved with all the traditions.
She told People: "I love being home for Christmas, and so far I've missed all kinds of holidays, but to my knowledge I have never not been home for Christmas.
"[I love] the tradition of being home for Christmas, and being with family, and having all the good food and all the different dishes that different family members make, and just the music, and just all the festivities of the lights and the sounds, and everything to do with Christmas."
The 'Jolene' hitmaker noted that some of the traditions in her household crossover from Thanksgiving in November to Christmas in December and loves getting to make a "big ol' pot of chicken" for everyone to enjoy.
She said: "I always love everything we have to do at Christmas. So many of the things we have at Thanksgiving, you know, like the sage dressing and the giblet gravy and the mashed potatoes and the sweet potato bars.
"I'm big on making a big old pot of chicken and dumplings, and everybody looks forward to that as well.."
The former 'Hannah Montana' star has written 'Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Makes It Big' about her real-life bulldog, which sees the fictionalised version of her canine companion deciding between a gig or heading home from he holidays.
Speaking about the book, she added: "Billy gets a big offer to work at the Barcafella Center, and so he's already promised that he'd be home for Christmas, and so eventually he gets there.
"But then there's a lot of fun, story and everything in between."
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