It's November, and some of us have already got the Christmas decorations up while some of us are slowly getting into the festive spirit.
In a recent chat with Better Homes & Gardens Dolly Parton revealed that she doesn't have one, or two Christmas trees in her house. In fact, every room in her house has one Christmas tree!
According to a 2016 article, Dolly Parton has 15 bedrooms in her house so she probably has 15+ Christmas trees!
Dolly Parton shared that she starts her Christmas "the day after Thanksgiving" which is towards the end of November. This year Thanksgiving falls on 24th November, which means her Christmas tree or should we say Christmas trees will be out on November 25th.
“Christmas lights are turned on. The wreaths go up. I have a little chapel on my property; I put a cross on top of that.”
The first ornament that goes on the tree is "a little patchwork star Momma made for us when I was little.”
One unique decor that she has on her tree is a "popcorn garland".
Dolly recalled her childhood Christmas holidays, saying her mum would decorate their Christmas tree with coloured papers, rags, foil-covered eggs, and popcorn.
"We didn’t even have electricity for lights on the tree. We had popcorn garland,” she said.
“That’s one of the things I have to have today. I never got over being country.”
For Dolly, her mother was the main person who always made sure everyone in the family had a good Christmas.
She told that her mum had a powerful form of "holiday magic".
“I always say Momma could tell you anything and make you believe it. She had to make Christmas good for all of us,” Dolly said.
“She didn’t have any money to do it any other way. You know, we really didn’t know we were poor. I always make a joke".
She continued: “Momma was creative, and she understood that she had to tell the right stories. And she had to make it exciting. She could cook anything, and it would taste good, because she would talk about the magic she put in it. She could get you there. Like, she mentally got you there."
When it comes to packing up the decorations, she leaves it until January 19, "except for the outside ones people see, I'm not that tacky".
All her Christmas trees are real ones, as she has childhood memories attached to them.
"I always want a live tree because Daddy would take us to chop a tree down,” she said.
“He’d look at all the trees and make us pick out the perfect one. And we’d all want to hold the axe, but he wouldn’t let us because we’d have probably chopped each other to pieces.”
On Christmas eve, when friends and family come to their place to celebrate, at some point at night she changes into her Santa suit and gives presents.
The singer has an elevator in her house, so the door of the basement floor is decorated as a chimney.
So when she comes down the elevator, it's like she's coming down the chimney!
"It’s got the flames and everything."
“I get in my Santa suit, and I got my Santa bags with their presents in it. And I come down the ‘chimney.’ ”
Everyone calls her Granny Claus - we love this!
