Dolly Parton Gives Us a Coat of Many Colors

Dolly Parton has a Christmas gift for us: the story behind her favorite of her songs, “Coat of Many Colors.”

NBC has dramatized the story, set to air Thursday, December 10; from a sleigh at the gates of Dollywood, she invites us to peek under the wrapping paper and watch the trailer.

We meet little Dolly (played by Alyvia Alyn Lind), a nine-year-old Great Smoky Mountain songbird excited for the arrival of a new baby sibling. Tragedy comes instead, and Dolly’s mother Avie (Jennifer Nettles) makes her a coat of many colors at the suggestion of her father, played by Ricky Schroder, whose later-season Silver Spoons years were, for many of us, when we knew.

It may perhaps be the most depressing holiday movie ever, but then this is the woman who in the past has given us a holiday movie about a bunch of orphans living in the woods with a witch trying to kill them. And another wherein a country-music star dies in a car wreck in the first five minutes.

But then again, this is Dolly; any gift from her is a gift we’re thankful for.

And here, in three minutes, is Dolly to make you cry over a box of rags:

Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors airs on NBC December 10 at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central. It’s the first of a series of TV movies developed by Parton slated to air over 2016. And if you find yourself in Pigeon Forge, TN, you can see the coat at Dollywood’s Chasing Rainbows Museum.