Christmas may be over, but many families choose to keep the trees up and the halls decked until the new year is here.
However, for the queen of country music, that’s not long enough. Dolly Parton’s holiday decorations stay up weeks longer — for a good reason.
After all, the “Holly Dolly Christmas” singer still has more celebrating to do.
"I put up my Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving," Parton explained in a recent interview for Cody Alan’s podcast.
And while that’s a common enough tradition, what’s not so common is keeping the shiny ornaments and the mistletoe around until Jan. 19.
"I celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving until my birthday on the 19th of January,” she said, adding, “I always make them leave my decorations up until after my birthday, because I am still celebrating."
Parton will turn 75 when she packs up the tinsel and bows this January, and by then, she’ll have also packed in a whole lot of holiday joy. In fact, she got started long before Thanksgiving this year, with the release of her “Holly Dolly Christmas” album in October and the Netflix film “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square” in November.
As for the big day itself, when she spoke to Cody Cast well before the 25th, she said it would be filled with “all the traditional stuff, just like everybody else — you know the turkey and dressing. Sometimes we just bake big fat chickens instead of turkeys, but we do all the hams and the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, and the pumpkin and sweet-potato pies."
And thanks to another interview she gave to Red Online, we even know the sort of gifts that she and her husband of 54 years, Carl Dean, exchanged.
“My husband, Carl, and I are pretty easygoing when it comes to gifts,” Parton explained. “He’s a carpenter and a mechanic, so I keep an eye on what he’s missing or what he’s worn out and I’ll buy him tools or flashlights. He knows I love to cook, so he’ll buy me things like aprons or oven mitts.”
And if he wants to follow up her Christmas present with a winning birthday gift, she even told the publication what she loves best.
“A poem inside a card is my favorite kind of gift,” she said.