Here's How Many Songs Dolly Parton Wrote For Christmas On The Square
If you can believe it, it's the holiday season yet again. It might feel unbelievable that Christmas is almost upon us because Americans have been asked to quarantine for much of 2020, canceling vacation plans and more or less skipping summer. Then, the 2020 presidential election dragged on well past Election Day, with President Donald Trump refusing to concede and insisting on fighting the results in court. And finally, there's Covid-19, which hit in a second wave around the country ahead of people heading home for Thanksgiving, forcing them to yet again cancel plans with loved ones.
Well, don't worry, even if it doesn't feel like Christmas, and even if you can't be with your family, you can still indulge in the hallowed tradition of watching cheesy Christmas movies. And Dolly Parton, as she so often does, is here to save the day. Just in time for Christmas, Parton is coming out with a new Netflix movie and an accompanying album to get you into some semblance of the holiday spirit. Read on to find out all about the new movie and how many songs Parton churned out for the soundtrack.
Dolly Parton's music was inspired by her movie
Dolly Parton has a new take on a classic tale with her Netflix film Christmas on the Square. The movie is an updated version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with Christine Baranski as a modern Scrooge. Baranski plays a grumpy landlord who plans to evict the residents of a charming, musically-inclined town from her buildings right before Christmas, per Rotten Tomatoes. Thankfully, Parton shows up just in time as what else? An angel who helps Baranski see the error of her ways and save the townspeople from a pretty depressing Christmas.
Parton sat down with Rotten Tomatoes to discuss the project and the whopping 14 original Christmas songs she wrote for the album to accompany the film. A Holly Dolly Christmas also happens to be her first holiday album since 1990. Now coming up with 14 new songs about Christmas can't be easy, especially if you've already done it once before, but Parton was up to the task. She told the interviewer that she decided to write the songs on A Holly Dolly Christmas around the story of Christmas on the Square and from there, it just flowed naturally.
"Every writer wants to be able to write Christmas songs that might become classic someday. ... For this, I kind of based it on the story and the characters," Parton explained. "You just kinda sit and let the light shine down and grab what you can and just go after it."