The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Richard Paul Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2001

In 1994, Richard Paul Evans, then an unknown writer, self-published a short book entitled The Christmas Box. That book went on to become an international bestseller, selling more than seven million copies and touching the lives of many more people along the way.

The Christmas Box Miracle is the story behind the book that has become a Christmas classic: how a man writes and publishes a book which helps grieving people to heal and lost souls to find their way home. It is Evans's story: his own spiritual journey and stories of people he encountered along the way -- miraculous stories of healing and divinity that often defy explanation.

In sharing the story behind The Christmas Box, Richard Paul Evans has given us a story of miracles, hope and healing for all seasons.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It began with The Christmas Box, a humble story about a caretaker and his family who befriend a lonely widow at Christmas time. In The Christmas Box Miracle, author Richard Paul Evans offers the back story, showing us how his self- published book became a runaway bestseller. We first meet the author as a young boy, learning about the family and faith that led him to become such as reliable and unpretentious narrator. As it turns out, Evans grew up in a Mormon household amongst a band of taunting brothers and a few childhood ghosts. His mother lost a stillborn daughter when Evans was a toddler. She also suffered from severe depression and suicidal tendencies. This backdrop helps us understand Evans's dedication to bring healing and hope to life. More than a publishing success story, The Christmas Box Miracle speaks about Evans's ability to change readers' lives and foster miracle after miracle. Fans of Evans already know to pull out their handkerchiefs. --Gail Hudson

From Library Journal

Evans recounts the spiritual quest that led to his writing The Christmas Box.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743219422
• ISBN-13: 978-0743219426
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #307,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Paul Evans
When Richard Paul Evans wrote the #1 best-seller, The Christmas Box, he never intended on becoming an internationally known author.

Officially, he was an advertising executive, an award-winning clay animator for the American and Japanese markets, candidate for state legislature and most importantly, husband and father. The Christmas Box was written as an expression of love for his (then) two daughters. Though he often told them how much he loved them, he wanted to express his love in a way that would be timeless. In 1993, Evans reproduced 20 copies of the final story and gave them to his closest relatives and friends as Christmas presents. In the month following, those 20 copies were passed around more than 160 times, and soon word spread so widely that bookstores began calling his home with orders for it.

His quiet story of parental love and the true meaning of Christmas made history when it became simultaneously the #1 hardcover and paperback book in the nation. Since then, more than eight million copies of The Christmas Box have been printed. The Emmy award-winning CBS television movie based on The Christmas Box starred Maureen O'Hara and Richard Thomas. Two more of Evans's books were produced by Hallmark and starred such well-known actors as James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Naomi Watts, Mary McDonough and Academy award winner Ellen Burstyn. He has since written 10 consecutive New York Times bestsellers and is one of the few authors in history to have hit both the fiction and non-fiction bestseller lists. He has won three awards for his children's books including the 1998 American Mothers book award and two first place Storytelling World awards. Evans's latest book, The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth, is now available.

Of his success, Evans says: "The material achievements of The Christmas Box will never convey its true success, the lives it has changed, the families brought closer together, the mothers and fathers who suddenly understand the pricelessness of their children's fleeting childhood. I share the message of this book with you in hopes that in some way, you might be, as I was, enlightened."

During the Spring of 1997, Evans founded The Christmas Box House International, an organization devoted to building shelters and providing services for abused and neglected children. Such shelters are operational in Moab, Vernal, Ogden and Salt Lake City, Utah and Lucre, Peru. To date, more than 16,000 children have been housed in Christmas Box House facilities.

As an acclaimed speaker, Evans has shared the podium with such notable personalities as President George W. Bush, President George and Barbara Bush, former British Prime Minister John Majors, Ron Howard, Elizabeth Dole, Deepak Chopra, Steve Allen, and Bob Hope. Evans has been featured on the Today show and Entertainment Tonight, as well as in Time, Newsweek, People, The New York Times, Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, USA Today, TV Guide, Reader's Digest, and Family Circle. Evans lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their five children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As inspiring as the book itself, November 7, 2001

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope (Hardcover)

It says something about Richard Paul Evans that he is one of the few authors whom I will buy new and in hardcover. After the disastrous events of 9/11, I felt severely in the need for some kind of inspirational comfort, so I picked up "The Christmas Box Miracle." Unlike his prior books, this is a an autobiography of Evans, and simultaneously a very unique success story -- not just because the book became popular, but how it affected the people who read it.

Evans was born into a middle-class Mormon family with several kids, who moved to Utah when he was still quite young. We get both visions of his family: the lighter side, with his rambunctious siblings and childhood antics, and the darker side, how his mother miscarried when he was a toddler, and suffered from severe depression that resulted in a failed suicide attempt.

A great influence on Evans was his grandfather, an immensely faith-filled man who predicted once that Evans would "walk with the royalty of this earth and be known as one who loves God." A prediction which has since come true. The book then follows Evans in his careers as a missionary, a member of a newspaper staff, working for a tux rental agency, and so forth. It also follows him into his marriage with Keri, his wife (an interesting detail is who her crotchety father inspired *wink*). But after two of their children were born, it turned out that he was "trading diamonds for stones," working too hard and missing out on his children.

Then, after the folding of his agency, Evans wrote a short novel that has now become famous, reaching across political, religious, age and financial barriers. "The Christmas Box" strongly affected everyone who read it, to the point where people were sending orders into bookstores for a novel that had, technically, never been published. His trip into publication was more than a success story, when it became a helping point for those who had lost a child.

It may be viewed as a mere coincidence that this book came out around the time of the WTC attack, but I doubt Evans' grandfather would see it so. This book is truly inspiring, especially given the short letters from people whom it has deeply affected, from across the world. (I, personally, have never lost a child but I was deeply traumatized by the loss of a baby brother, and "Christmas Box" helped me through that rough time) We are also given a look inside Evans' head, and the power of God that he's felt in his life.

As in his fiction, Evans is very spare and evocative in his descriptions, and very poetic in his speculations. There's an undercurrent of wry wit to this book, such as the passage where he relates how his brother got him to read classic authors by saying, "Chicks dig Shakespeare." He also displays that success has not swelled his head, as he seems to have no problem relating that So-and-so and Such-and-Such did not like him, his problems and insecurities.

The book also gives background into the many people who were deeply touched by the Christmas Box (including the person who said that he was too young to have written such a book), and to the Angel Statues. I hadn't previously understood the meaning of these statues, and it's very moving when I did learn what they were for.

Maybe this story is even more inspiring than the Christmas Box, because it is REAL. I strongly advise everyone -- especially people who have read his other books -- to read this book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for Every Season!, March 25, 2002

By 

Nancy R. Katz "NancyK18" (NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope (Hardcover)

Several years ago I watched a TV movie called The Christmas Box, which starred Maureen O'Hara and Richard Thomas. I'm not sure exactly what attracted me to this prsentation, most likely the cast, but not only did I enjoy the perfromances but more importantly the message of this made for TV movie. A few weeks after this I came across a book with this title and read the dust jacket. Immediately, I realized the TV movie was based on this book and I just had to read it. Not only did I gulp down this book the time I read it but almost as soon as I finished it I just had to read it again. And since that time I have read The Christmas Box almost every holiday season and all of Richard Paul Evans other titles as well. Today, this small book continues to speak volumes and has affected the lives of many readers, perhaps most of all the author and his family.

One would have to say that the success of this book is truly a miracle. And it is this very sucess which Evans addresses in his new book titled The Christmas Box Miracle. Part memoir, part philosophy, in this book Evans offers his readers the story behind the writing of The Christmas Box, which was intended only as a gift for his two small daughters.

Evans begins this book by discussing his basic philosophy and the premise that there are forces at work, some known and some unknown, which alter our lives. He then depicts his large Mormon family and the prophecy of hsi grandfathers who said that, "He (Evans) would walk among noble men and royalty." He describes his fathers lucrative job and the material lives his family was afforded and then his fathers loss of his job and their move back to Utah. Moving on to his college years, Evans relates sevevral instances when divine intervention led him to decisions whih altered his life. And in some instances even saved his life. Finally and for me the most intersting part of the book is when Evans explains to readers how a small book which was originally self published and handed out to 20 family members and friends became a number one bestseller and continues to be sold around the world.

As I finished The Christmas Box Miracle, I thought about the role of miracles, angels, faith, dtermination and most of all the greatest gift in our lives, the gift of love. Mr. Evans always supplies these basic themes in his books and offers his readers hope during devestating times and even healing from life's cruelest blows. May he continue to reach out to audiences and spread these messages.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a magic journey, October 16, 2001

By 

barrie vernon (Sun City, California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope (Hardcover)

In a perfect world, I could sit down with Sir James M. Barrie, Kenneth Grahame or T.H. White and ask them to tell me where the stories that they wrote came from. As a young man, these books stirred my soul, changed my life and left me, at the last page, a better person for having read them but with a thousand questions in my soul. I would ask them the source of the images, the inspiration, the words, and the magic on their pages. And I would thank them for telling me the wonderful story behind the wonderful story.

Foe everyone who has read and been touched by The Christmas Box, Richard Paul Evans has heard us and has invited us into his house and his heart to be present at the genesis and journey of his mystical tale and has allowed us to share the stories of those who felt, and were transformed by, the miracle of the book.

The Christmas Box Miracle is as much a miracle as The Christmas Box but it is a true, genuine and moving story. It is told with tender affection, a sense of humor and a moving respect for a Higher Power who uses The Christmas Box to heal broken hearts and touch even the most cynical souls.

It is a spiritual journey and a life journey and lets us know that, behind the numbers who have read the original book, are real people who were hurting from an unbelievable loss and found the will, through the power of God and a small book, to regain and restart the lives that they thought they had lost within themselves.

A must read for those who read The Christmas Box and a perfect reason to read it for those who haven't. Thank you, Richard, for giving me what the other writers who changed my life couldn't give me.