Common Sense Media Review
By Jennifer Green
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Holiday musical includes mature themes, promotes faith.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square
What's the Story?
Regina (Christine Baranski) is a successful businesswoman who owns the majority of land in her hometown of Fullerville, Kansas in DOLLY PARTON'S CHRISTMAS ON THE SQUARE. Following her father's death, and eager to cut all ties to the town, she announces plans to sell the whole area to a developer to build a giant mall. The townspeople will be evicted from their homes and businesses on Christmas Eve. But before this happens, Regina is visited by a guardian angel who wants to help her find love and joy again, just in time for the season of giving.
Is It Any Good?
Everything Dolly touches seems to turn to gold, and Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square is no different. There's a scene where Baranski's Regina looks down her patrician nose at Angel Dolly's rhinestone-encrusted platform boots and utters, "tacky." It's hilarious and telling at once: a comment on the coastal elite's view of "Middle" America (and maybe Dolly herself), city vs town, cosmopolitan vs country. True enough, if you can't take the shiny surface -- the genre-hopping musical numbers, jazz-hand dancing, small-town sweetness and Christian messages -- then this movie could be a tough watch for you.
If you can look beyond the rhinestones, the film has a much deeper and harder-edged story than the intentionally old-fashioned, It's a Wonderful Life-inspired packaging would suggest. The film is at turns sad, funny, silly, and inspiring, just like Dolly's tell-it-as-it-is song lyrics often are. (A benefit of this being a Netflix film is the possibility to play it with subtitles and read all the lyrics.) There are angels perched on clouds and prancing pastors and postmen, but there are also teen pregnancies, forced adoptions, lost loves, dead parents, fertility treatments, hospitalized children, and dire medical diagnoses. An especially moving scene has the world-weary and bitter Regina bond with a wise-beyond-her-years little girl who helps tend her daddy's bar. The two sing "life is not a fairy tale," a lyric that could easily serve as the film's tagline.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the parable of the lamp lighter told in Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square. What is the lesson of the story, and why does the angel tell it to Regina?
What aspects of Christian faith are on display in this film? Do you have to be a believer to enjoy this movie? Why or why not?
A line warns the town isn't "wonderful" and you aren't "George Bailey." Did you get this reference? How could you figure out what it refers to?
How do different characters demonstrate compassion? Why is this an important character strength?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : November 22, 2020
- Cast : Dolly Parton , Christine Baranski , Treat Williams
- Director : Debbie Allen
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Director(s) , Black Movie Director(s) , Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Musical
- Topics : Fantasy ( Fairy Tales ) , Holidays , Arts ( Music and Sing-Along )
- Character Strengths : Compassion
- Run time : 98 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : March 5, 2026
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