Customer Reviews

Christmas Jars

5 star:		(136)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a fantastic little book with a tremendously moving story. We have bought and distributed at least a dozen copies to friends, family and strangers. The story inspires each reader to perform a specific random act of kindness (remember that term?) in the form of a Christmas Jar. Immediately after everyone in our family had read the book and checked out the true Christmas Jar stories on the Internet (don't do so until you read the book), we set up our first Christmas Jar (Chanukah Jar). Imagine, Christian or Jew, it is still a "CJ." Our CJ will be one of our "Mitzvahs" or good deeds for the 2007 holiday season. Every night when we empty our change into the jar, we contemplate who we might give it to this December. Our book gifts have sprouted other CJs and hopefully when the movie hits the theaters this fall there will be a tremendous response and many more CJs for deserving souls.

Christmas Jars is a little book with a big message about the Christmas season. In an age when Christmas gift giving has become more of an expensive routine than a heartfelt pleasure for many people, Jason Wright offers an alternative that recaptures the spirit of the season.

When young newspaper reporter Hope Jensen experienced one of those horrible Christmas Eves that are often written about in newspapers like hers, she had no reason to believe that anything good would come from the experience. Getting through her first Christmas without her adoptive mother was going to be hard enough already but, when she returned to her apartment wanting nothing more than to sleep the rest of the day away, things would get worse. Hope found her apartment trashed by burglars, something that seems to happen all too often on Christmas Eve.

Finding herself somewhere between bursting into tears and throwing a tantrum, Hope was saved from doing either when she discovered a small jar stuffed with coins and paper currency that had mysteriously appeared just inside her apartment door during all the excitement. There was nothing to indicate its source or why it had been left for her. Smelling a newspaper story, and in need of something pleasant on which to focus, Hope Jensen decided that she would solve the mystery of her Christmas jar.

What she discovered about the Christmas jar tradition in her town, and what she learned about herself in the process, is the heart of this Christmas story. It is a story about strangers giving gifts to those who need them most, and how those who received the jars on one Christmas often gave Christmas jars of their own to others on the next.

Christmas Jars is a tale reminiscent of a 1940s black and white movie in the way that many of its characters are a tad too perfect and too ready to forgive. The length of the book, a short 122 pages, does not allow Wright to flesh out his characters or their story and that is a shame because he has created characters worthy of more attention. Perhaps that is meant to be part of its charm but the book would have been much stronger and would have had more of an impact on the reader if its characters had been more completely developed. But the real point of this book is its message, an inspirational one that will be retold this fall as a "major motion picture." Here's hoping that Christmas Jars and its movie version start a new tradition of Christmas Eve giving that is passed from one generation to the next.

What a wonderful tale about giving and receiving. Perfect for Christmas time. It tells of a little baby that was left inside a Chuck's Chicken and is found by a single woman, Louise, who raises her. Hope one day wants to become a journalist for the paper. Just as her dream is about to come true, her mother passes away from cancer. She is robbed, but the night of the robbery someone leaves a jar full of change.

Curious about who did this kind act, Hope sets out to investigate, and write a column for the paper, hoping to make it big with this wonderful story about others giving jars full of change and money to others. What she embarks upon is something different.

You will shed a tear with this one, and it will stay with you forever. What a neat idea!

A friend of mine told me about the book so I quickly ordered one for myself. It is just as the back cover says, destined to become a new Christmas classic. As I read, I found myself consumed with not only the story, but the characters. The ending was a bit of a surprise which is not usual for me. The giving spirit of Christmas finds new hope in this book, just as Hope (the main character) finds the kind of treasure that can't be put in a jar.

I don't usually read Christmas novels, but for some reason I was compelled to read this one. I am so glad that I did. I absolutely love the novel from beginning to end. I was surprised to read the negative comments that were left. Don't let these discourage you from purchasing this book. Some good reasons to buy this book: it's a great book to inspire your family to begin your own Christmas Jar or similar type of tradition; it reminds you that Christmas isn't all about shopping to buy presents for your family and friends, but it's about giving to those who are sick, afflicted, or poor; it helps you understand the effect you can have on the world by performing one charitable act for someone; it's an affordable book; it's a quick and easy read; and it makes for a great Christmas present. It reminds me of the parable of the good Samaritan in which it teaches us that we should give to those in need, regardless of whether they are our friends or not.

I was very grateful to receive this book as my Christmas gift. I was inspired to reach out to others in need in a unique way. It only takes a spark to get a fire going and I believe this little book is a spark. When reading this little book, it was like being there. I could hear their voices, see the expressions on their faces and feel what they were feeling. I was deeply moved. Thanks to the author, Jason Wright.

This is a simple yet 'hearfelt - feel the Christmas spirit on every page' book. I really enjoyed it. The idea of a Christmas Jar is just brillant. A great way to keep the Christmas spirit all year long. It's such a short story that to tell any details almost gives the entire book away. So I have to just say read it. Give it to your friends, family, teachers and anyone else you know. Make it a tradition. I plan to.

This story helps our family keep the spirit of Christmas alive all year long. This has to be my favorite Christmas book ever. The story is a gift to us all on the true meaning of Christmas. Thank you Jason Wright. My 15 year old daughter couldn't put the book down. I know our family will think of this story every day of the year as we drop our extra change into our Christmas Jar. My kids can hardly wait to decide whom we should give the Christmas Jar to next year. A must read for everyone!!!

So much of our lives are a result of another's intersection. Hope Jensen was abandoned as a baby, left on a booth seat at the Chuck's Chicken `n' Biscuits, six miles outside of town on Highway 4. Abandoned, but then found by an unsuspecting Louise Jensen who always stopped by Chuck's on New Year's Eve. The very same Hope who returned to her "hometown" after college to make her name in journalism. Now alone after Louise's death, Hope returns to her apartment that first solitary Christmas Eve and finds her apartment ransacked. Everything gone, including Hope's belief that people were basically good and kind. Stepping out of the mess to catch her breath, Hope stumbles over a brown paper bag containing a jar filled with cash. Where did the jar come from? Puzzled by the unexpected windfall, Hope sets out to find out where the money came from....sure she has stumbled on a front page story. No matter which way she turns, her questions are turned aside. The most promising lead, the Maxwell family does not open up to Hope's questions; they open their hearts and bring her into their family. Hope still wants the story, but the warmth of the Maxwell's home is equally appealing.

Jason F. Wright has crafted a simple, heartwarming tale about the effect one kind act can have as its recipient and the ripple effect that kindness sets in motion. Never saccharine, Wright reminds readers that every one of us has the ability and opportunity to affect the lives of someone around us. This is a hopeful (no pun intended) tale that will lift the reader and restore a bit of faith in those around them. You may even start a Christmas jar of your own.

When Hope Jensen is adopted by her beloved mother--after having been abandoned in a neighborhood restaurant on Christmas Eve--she leads a charmed life, with a mother who until taking her in had remained unmarried and childless. When her mother passes away from cancer, Hope feels as though a part of herself has died also. But now a successful young woman pursuing her love of journalism, she believes that she can be as successful as she would like to be...as her mother always told her. When she returns home one evening to find that her home has been burglarized, Hope feels devastated and violated. But when she discovers that some kind soul has left her a jar overflowing with money on her doorstep, Hope is touched...and determined to find our the story and the source behind the Christmas Jars. Hope's search brings into her life a warm and loving family...and leads to perhaps the greatest discovery of all......

A wonderful, jewel of a story and book...perfect for the season and restoring one's faith in humanity.



DYB