Thirty years ago, Richard Paul Evans self-published “The Christmas Box,” a rather succinct little book that Newsweek would later call “the most popular holiday tale since Tiny Tim.”
The story — about a man who learned a lesson from an elderly widow who had lost her young daughter decades earlier — became a phenomenon.
Evans sold thousands of copies at bookstores in Utah, then sold the rights to a major publisher, which sold millions of copies across the country and around the world. In 1995, it became the first book to simultaneously hit No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list for both its paperback and hardcover editions.
And for three decades, “The Christmas Box” has brought comfort to parents who have lost children. The book spawned a TV movie, sequels, angel memorials, emergency shelters for abused children and a charitable foundation.
But when Evans wrote the book, it never occurred to him that it would comfort grieving parents.
“That’s not what the book is about,” he said in an interview this week with The Tribune. “I mean, I had to learn that from the readers. For me, it’s about spending time with your children.”
(Simon & Schuster) A 30th anniversary edition of "The Christmas Box" is now available.
And he never dreamed that it would sell thousands, let alone millions, of copies.
“The last thing I was trying to do was to write for the masses,” Evans said. “I was writing a book my little girls would someday read and understand my feelings. I didn’t worry about anyone looking at it. I just wrote what’s true to me, and what meant a lot to me.”
But, to his surprise, he soon learned “the book was impacting people on a personal level. And I think that’s why it worked. It was written for just individuals. I think that’s why the book became so loved.”
When he wrote the book, he was a 29-year-old father of two young daughters. And, while there are those who doubt the book’s origin story because it sounds too good to be true, Evans really did write “The Christmas Box” — in pen, on yellow legal pads — for his children. And to give as Christmas gifts to friends.
“I only made 20 copies originally,” he said. Evans ended up selling an amazing 250,000 paperback copies on his own, and then sold the hardback rights to Simon & Schuster for a whopping $4.2 million, and the publisher sold millions more copies.
That shocked him. But Evans was also surprised when he started hearing from people who had lost children — first from a woman who wanted permission to use part of the book in her young grandson’s funeral program. And another woman told him, “’You got your message out. When your book came out, I just lost a child. I got 16 copies of your book given to me that Christmas.’”
Even his mother — who cried when she read “The Christmas Box” — told him that. “She said, ‘It took away my pain’ after a daughter was stillborn many years earlier.’ It would have been worth it, just to help her.
“It wasn’t something I was trying to market on,” Evans said, “but after 1,000 people tell you the book brought them healing, of course I’m going to talk about that.”
Half his life
Does it seem like it’s been 30 years since “The Christmas Box” was first published? “Yeah,” Evans said with a laugh. “I was a kid with brown, spiky hair back then. Seriously, I was 29 years old. I’m double that now. A lot of water under the bridge.”
The book has never been out of print since it was published, and Simon & Schuster has published a 30th anniversary edition, available online and in bookstores, Target, Walmart and other retailers.
It marked a dividing line in his life — from a guy who worked in an advertising agency to a hugely successful author.
“Seriously, you can almost look at my life that way,” he said. “From Rick Evans, I became Richard Paul Evans. I mean, everything changed. Our whole world changed.”
(He said he decided to use his full name on the book — even though that’s “usually [for Latter-day Saint] general authorities and serial killers” — because it “just sounded more like an author. … I never thought it through that much.”)
Before he wrote “The Christmas Box,” Evans “believed there was something big” in his future, but he “couldn’t see what was going to happen.” And when it did happen — when the book became a huge bestseller — it was hard for Evans to believe.
“I’m living in my little house and I’m making $25,000 a year,” he said. “It’s like, you’ve got to be kidding me. It was magical. It happened so fast. And honestly, looking back, the only regret I have is that I didn’t enjoy it. I was stressed out, and I wish we just had more fun and just relaxed.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Richard Paul Evans speaks during the annual ceremony for grieving parents at the Christmas Box Angel, at the Salt Lake City Cemetery, Saturday, December 6, 2014
Angels around the world
In the book, the elderly widow, Mary, mourns her daughter at the base of an angel statue. Evans commissioned a statue designed to look like his description in “The Christmas Box,” which was dedicated at the Salt Lake City cemetery in 1994.
Since then, 174 Christmas Box angel statues have been erected around the world.
“I just feel like there’s a mission to it that was so much bigger than me,” Evans said. “I would have these really spiritual experiences, like — just stay with it, you know, things are going to happen. And so I feel more like a mouthpiece.”
From advertising to novelist
Evans didn’t have any formal training to write novels, but he maintains that his work in advertising was “the best kind of training you can get. Because you have to write things that no one wants to listen to,” he said, chuckling. “And that’s why ‘The Christmas Box’ is so short. It has to be impactful. And that’s how commercials have to be.”
He contrasted himself with such authors as John Grisham and David Baldacci — former attorneys who “write really long things like they’re writing legal briefs. The ad guys, we write, like, 30 seconds at a time,” Evans said with a laugh. “So it wasn’t that I didn’t have writing training. I just didn’t write novels.”
And, because he has ADHD, he said, “I get bored really, really fast, so I tend to write shorter and move it along. And after I write a book, I go through and just cut out a lot of it just because it bores me.”
Not a one-hit wonder
Evans signed another multi-million dollar deal for his second book, but there was some question in the publishing industry that perhaps “The Christmas Box” was a fluke — that, as a novelist, Evans might be a one-hit wonder.
“Exactly,” he said. “There was no guarantee that I wouldn’t be. In fact, part of me just kind of assumed I would be. … I wrote a Christmas story, of all things.”
He said that it wasn’t until a New York Times reporter asked him, “What’s your next book?” that he even thought about a second novel. “It never crossed my mind,” he said. “I really never thought of it. I know that sounds strange, but it was just, like, ‘Oh, I should do this.’”
He got an agent and was fielding calls from publishers who wanted to buy the second book, even though he had no idea what the second book would be. He ended up writing “Timepiece.” a prequel to “The Christmas Box” — and it, too, became a bestseller.
He’s written more than 50 books since then, selling about 40 million copies. His books have been translated into 22 languages.
Although “The Christmas Box” launched his career, it’s no longer the book he’s most identified with. “Not anymore,” Evans said. “Probably the thing I get stopped most about is Michael Vey,” the hero in nine books in an adventure series, a teen protagonist with electric powers.
Writer’s block
Evans said he not only had a tough time figuring out what his second book would be, but a tough time writing it — because he was feeling a lot of pressure.
“I’m trying to write the next bestseller. That’s what they paid me for,” he said. “And I was just stuck. The book wasn’t coming. I was just fighting it.”
But, seeking inspiration as he went for a walk, he said, he had “an epiphany. I don’t know how to write a bestseller. I have no idea. And I think, in a way, that’s the moment I became a writer.”
Not only did “Timepiece” sell millions of copies, but, as was the case with “The Christmas Box,” it was made into a TV movie. But there was one thing distinctly different about it: He wrote and edited his first book himself; he worked with an editor at Simon & Schuster on his second book, and “we would fight all the time.”
Three decades later, Evans is quick to say, “I love my editors.” But back in the mid-1990s, “It took a lot to learn how to work with them. It’s like working with a coach. … I learned to be coachable. To listen. To say, ‘What do you think? How can I make this better? How can I improve as a writer?’”
And he learned that writing a bestseller put the spotlight on him. “I felt like I was putting my wings on as I was going down the runway,” Evans said. “I had to learn in public.”
He acknowledged that, had he worked with an editor on “The Christmas Box,” the book would have been somewhat different. “I could rewrite and change it,” he said, “but I would risk losing the heart and the magic of that book.”
Coming up next
His next book, “Sharing Too Much: Musings From an Unlikely Life” — set to publish on Feb. 27 — is a bit of a departure for Evans. It’s a series of essays, inspired by one he wrote titled “How I Saved My Marriage.” He posted that online, and it quickly amassed 120 million views.
So he called the president of Simon & Schuster and said, “‘It’s by far the most read thing I’ve ever written. I mean, I’m getting letters from Saudi Arabia. I got seven from London today.’ It was crazy. And I told him that we should write a book just on that.”
The finished book contains 58 essays, “and I love that book, I think it’s going to do really well. Just because there’s something for everyone.”
Older and more mellow
Evans is twice the age he was when he wrote “The Christmas Box,” and he’s not altogether happy about that.
“When I turned 50, we had a big party. When I turned 60, I turned off my phone, and I stayed in bed until 1 o’clock,” he said. “Then that night, I turned on my phone and started answering all the birthday wishes. But it was like — I just wanted to hide now.”
He acknowledged feeling “old,” and being a different person at 60 than he was at 29. Which isn’t a bad thing.
“I’m not the same kind of desperate young man I was, wanting to leave a mark,” he said. “It’s nice to not be in such a hurry. And I feel really grateful. …
“I love my readers,” Evans added. “They’re so loyal and so good to me. I’m thankful. I mean, that’s the thing that I feel almost every day. And I think I’ve been lucky to write.”
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