There really is no place like home, especially for the holidays. Dolly Parton famously grew up poor in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee, with her parents and 11 siblings, and Christmas was always a very special time for her family there. Of course, over the years, as Dolly became a superstar, she had a hard time getting home for the holidays, but she says that she can't remember a time that she ever missed Christmas back home. During an interview with People promoting her new children's book, Dolly Parton's Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas, she recalled the dilemma many artists face when it comes to performing this time of year... usually, you get offered more to perform at things during the holiday season, but family and tradition always won out: "In this book, performers have the dilemma of whether we go on the road or whether we take shows for money, because so many artists get so much money offered to actually perform at certain things during the holiday season. But to love your family, and for that to be a family tradition. You always want to be home for Christmas, and that's kind of what this little book is about." She says that, in all of her years performing and being on tour, she missed all kinds of holidays, but she can't ever remember not being home for Christmas: "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." And of course, the Parton's have quite the spread in terms of food, which sounds absolutely amazing and I just know Dolly's chicken and dumplings are otherworldly. It says a lot about her character and love of family that she made such a point to be home for Christmas, and I'm sure now, certainly at a very different point in her life and career, with her parents no longer here, she's even happier with her decision to pass up performing to be home for all those decades. One of my favorite stories Dolly has told about Christmas growing up that stuck with her forever happened when she was a child, and her church was giving out Christmas presents to all of the congregation. They didn't have enough to give one to her mom, Avie Lee, and Dolly offered to give her the one she received after seeing her mom crying on the pew. Dolly always remembered what her Mama told her: “She didn’t make any noise, but I went over and I said, ‘Mama, you can have mine!’ She said, ‘No, no, honey, I don’t want yours. But I love you because of your good heart.’ So because of Mama, I’ve always tried to have a good heart.” That selflessness and generosity clearly stayed with her forever, and I know her Mama sure was proud of her for the person she ways, not the icon she became, though I"m sure she was proud of that too: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cl9YZ72JsaS/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e1eb6f49-f47a-4745-b67e-3a0dbfce0b00