Dolly Parton Dropped the Most Clever Hint of Her New Christmas Album Back in January

This holiday season, it's safe to say, we need a whole lot of hope, a whole lot of compassion, and a whole lot of Dolly Parton. Well, when it comes to getting an extra dose of cheer from the Smoky Mountain Songbird, we're in luck, as the singer's new Christmas Album, A Holly Dolly Christmas is out tomorrow, Friday, October 2.

And little did we know, but we could have had this little nugget of good news for months before she formally announced the Christmas album in August. In an Instagram post yesterday, Parton revealed that she had sneakily dropped a major clue about the album in January. As fans of the singer may recall, at the beginning of the year, Parton posted four photos of herself with captions reading "Linkedin," "Facebook," "Instagram," and "Tinder" with platform-appropriate ensembles in each of the four photos. Her clever post quickly gained traction and the "#DollyPartonChallenge." And now that we look closely at the Facebook post, we see that Parton is sporting a "Holly Dolly Christmas" sweater, which the sleuths in us should have known meant a festive holiday project was in the works.

In her update sharing that she had previously dropped hints of the album, she writes, "Who caught this #AHollyDollyChristmas clue from January?! Swipe to shop the turtleneck, crewneck and t-shirt versions of my sweater from the #DollyPartonChallenge," alongside video clips on the popular social media challenge and photos of the new Christmas-themed merchandise.

Leave it to Dolly Parton to drum up a little social media trail of breadcrumbs in anticipation of her new album. It may not even be Halloween yet, but we know we'll be playing it practically nonstop as soon as we get our hands on it tomorrow. We hear the tunes pair excellently with the country music icon's new holiday entertaining collection with Williams-Sonoma.

One order of the record's "Holly Jolly Christmas" and Parton's signature sugar cookie mix coming right up. Who's ready to join the fun with us? We predict a lot of virtual cookie meet-ups with loved ones and holiday tune sing-alongs in the very near future.