Pete’s Pick
February, 2021
The Christmas Box
Richard Paul Evans
Simon & Schuster, 1995
Introduction
This book is the story of a father’s love for his daughters that was never intended to be published. It was to be merely shared with his daughters so that they would one day understand his love for them. Because he made copies for his expanded family, it got shared. The result was an international best-seller.
Author
Richard Paul Evans is a former advertising executive who wanted to create an expression of his love for his two daughters through the telling of a story in book form. It would be something they could go back to and read again, even after having their own children. Little did he know the story would capture the hearts of millions around the world and become a best-seller. He now writes full time and has nearly four dozen books to his credit.
Story
The Christmas Box is a captivating story of a young family (father, mother, three-year-old daughter) who move in with a widow in a mansion in a well-to-do neighborhood in the Salt Lake Valley area. The widow needs a live-in family to provide daily meals, cleaning, laundry, and yard maintenance as she in not capable of doing those things on her own any longer. The story follows the family (Richard, Keri, and Jenna Evans) as they take up residence and begin a wonderful relationship with MaryAnne Parkin. She is an elderly woman, set in her ways, but with a keen eye on watching this young family living with her. She is particularly interested in Jenna, the three year old daughter.
During move-in day, Richard and his brother-in-law are moving most of Richard and Keri’s old furniture up into the attic because it is not needed in their furnished wing of the mansion. As they are moving things around in the attic to make room for the furniture storage, Rick finds a beautiful old wooden box with an intricate carving of a Nativity scene on the cover of the box. He admires the box and he and Barry finish the process of storing the old furniture. As the story progresses, the Evans settle into life in the mansion and Richard settles in to his life as a partner in a new formal wear rental business. They enjoy the interactions with Mary Parkin and she takes an interest in their family life. Rick’s business gets busier and he finds himself frequently occupied with work that he brings home, or ends up staying late at the business. Mary periodically urges Rick to spend time with his daughter Jenna. To hold her. To tuck her in at night. To read to her. She’s very kind in how she does this, but is fairly insistent on the importance of Rick’s spending time with his daughter.
As it gets towards Christmas, Rick begins to have dreams. They are the same each time. He finds himself in the middle of a large, open field with beautiful sounds of music filling the air. As he looks up, he sees an angel with outspread wings descending from heaven. As the angel gets close to him, he looks at it and the angel’s eyes roll up and the angel turns to stone. This happens several times. Then, one night the dream is much more vivid and the music more alive. He awakes thinking that the dream will go away, but he continues to hear the music. He realizes the music is coming from someplace in the house and he gets a flashlight and tries to follow the sound. He discovers that the music is coming from the attic and he goes into the attic and discovers the music is coming from the Christmas box he had found the day they moved in to the mansion. He examines the box looking for a key or a mechanism for the music, but finds none. Finally he opens the box and the music stops. Inside he finds a letter that is decades old. He reads the letter and it is written as a love letter to someone called Beloved One. He puts everything away and goes back to bed and shares the episode with Keri in the morning.
The story goes on to tell the tale of Mary’s bout with a brain tumor, the Evans family’s adventure of going through Mary’s illness with her and finding out about the importance of the angel in Richard’s dreams. Through it all, Mary asks Richard if he understands what the first Christmas gift was. Richard guessed at a number of answers, but by the end of the story, he finds out the real meaning of Christmas and the message Mary has been trying to give him.
Evaluation
The story is captivating and is easily read in an evening or two. Its message is incredibly powerful. When Richard Paul Evans first wrote it, it was basically a love story for his daughters. He made 20 copies for his extended family just to share it. However, it got shared around and all of a sudden there were requests coming from all over for copies of the story. In 1995, the book made history by being the first book ever to make #1 on the New York Times best seller list in both hardback and paperback simultaneously. It has now sold over 8 million copies. After reading the book, find a copy of Timepiece and read it. It will tell the story behind the story of The Christmas Box. I highly recommend both.