True story: My partner Sabrina and I were sitting on the couch watching Dolly Parton’s campy “Mountain Magic Christmas” in 2022, when Sabrina went into labor.
Two years later to the day, Sabrina and I — and our young daughter — were at Dollywood, peering into a glass case at the same skintight “reindeer” unitard that the then-76-year-old Parton had squeezed into for that TV special. Complete with antlers.
No one does Christmas quite like Dolly. And Dollywood and eastern Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains are a great place to experience the holidays.
The country legend’s signature theme park comes alive with its Smoky Mountains Christmas festival (running until Jan. 5). There’s a holiday train, dozens of Christmas trees, holiday performances and literally millions of lights.
We’ve experienced the down-home mirth two years in a row now, thanks to a budding extended-family tradition of spending Thanksgiving week in a cabin in the Smokies, not far from Dollywood in Pigeon Forge. In that time, we’ve scratched the surface of Dollywood, the mountains and nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
As theme parks go, I was impressed by Dollywood on the brisk 40- and 50-degree days we visited. It makes great use of its geology, with the main concourse wrapping through a gully around a woodsy bluff. It’s got the requisite thrill rides — Lightning Rod, Tennessee Tornado — but we took our almost-2-year-old to the Country Fair neighborhood, featuring functional vintage kiddie rides from carnivals of yore.
Every evening during the golden hour, crowds line up to ride the Dollywood Express steam locomotive, which loops through the park and past Christmas lights and giant luminarias in the woods. On select evenings, the day ends with a lighted drone show full of airborne holiday imagery, ending with the words: “Merry Christmas, Love Dolly.”
Dolly fare
More than any theme park I’ve been to, Dollywood has an intimate, personal touch. You feel like Parton herself could come strolling down the promenade at any time. There’s a two-room replica of Parton’s often-referenced childhood “Tennessee Mountain Home” (the real property is off-limits some 10 miles to the east). And of course, there are blocks of Dolly-themed shopping. Among other finds, we picked up a Dolly coffee mug with a classic portrait and a delicate guitar-shaped handle.