Willie Nelson, Billy Ray Cyrus, Jimmie Allen, Zach Williams, Tom Everett Scott, Ana Gasteyer, and Angel Parker appear on Dolly Parton Mountain Magic Christmas.
For Christmas this year, Dolly Parton is skipping the hard stuff.
NBC announced on Monday that country music legend Dolly Parton’s upcoming Christmas special, Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas, will feature an all-star cast, including Jimmy Fallon, Miley Cyrus, Willie Nelson, Billy Ray Cyrus, Jimmie Allen, Zach Williams, Tom Everett Scott, Ana Gasteyer, and Angel Parker.
Billed as a “modern-day movie musical,” this show will feature Dolly Parton, 76.
Mountain Music by Dolly Parton’s Christmas is both the hectic backstage story and the delightful on-screen results of her attempt to cheer up a weary world by spreading the special mountain magic” she has always experienced in and around Dollywood during the Christmas season, “says the network’s description of the holiday program.
Initially announced in May, the Christmas special will follow Parton as she prepares for the special inside the unique and then gets engrossed in “a secret trip into her history, led by the enigmatic appearances of her own Three Wise Men,” as the NBC announcement puts it.
Parton has an epiphany just before she’s set to air the made-up TV special and instead “shows the world that the real magic of Christmas lies in the hearts of the children we all once were, the realization that Christmas is about the people we share it with, and how her faith remains the common thread between Christmases past, present, and future.”
In addition to Parton and Sam Haskell, the show will include the writing and executive producing talents of David Rambo. Both Billy Levin and Hudson Hickman will be involved in the production process. The film’s director and executive producer are Joe Lazarov.
Magnolia Hill Productions and Sandollar Productions will join Warner Bros. Television in the production process.
With three prior Christmas albums under her belt (including 1984‘s Once Upon a Christmas with the late Kenny Rogers, 1990‘s Home for Christmas, and 2020s A Holly Dolly Christmas), Parton is no stranger to festive material.
As an actress, she has starred in many Christmas-themed features, including the 1986 TV movie A Smoky Mountain Christmas, the 2019 Hallmark film Christmas at Dollywood, and the 2020 Netflix film Dolly Parton’s Christmas in the Square, for which she won an Emmy.
In addition to 2015‘s Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and 2016‘s Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, Dolly Parton’s Magic Mountain Christmas is her third TV film with NBC.