The Christmas Box Collection: The Christmas Box / Timepiece / The Letter

The Christmas Box Trilogy #1-3

by Richard Paul Evans

Richard Paul Evans’ bestseller The Christmas Box has become a holiday classic, a tale so touching that it continues to “tug families’ heartstrings” (USA Today). His exquisite prequel, Timepiece, and The Letter complete the glorious trilogy of the Parkin family. Now all three magical stories are compiled in one extraordinary treasury that “reaches into that place where all broken heart will forever be made whole” (The Star, Chicago).

THE CHRISTMAS BOX

A Christmas story unlike any other, The Christmas Box is the poignant tale of a widow and the young family who moves in with her. Together, they discover the first gift of Christmas --- and what the holiday is really all about.

TIMEPIECE

Tracing the lives of a young couple as they discover love, loyalty, and the power of forgiveness, Timepiece is a tale of wisdom and of hope --- and a gentle reminder that the connections from one generation to the next are indelible.

THE LETTER

A mysterious letter is found at the grave of a couple's only child in this unforgettable conclusion to the collection. As they face love's greatest challenge, they find its truest meaning and learn the lessons that are echoed throughout.

Genres: Christmas, Fiction, Holiday, Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Realistic Fiction

624 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

When Richard Paul Evans wrote the #1 best-seller, The Christmas Box, he never intended on becoming an internationally known author. 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. He has since written eleven consecutive New York Times bestsellers. He is one the few authors in history to have hit both the fiction and non-fiction bestseller lists. He has won several awards for his books including the 1998 American Mothers Book Award, two first place Storytelling World Awards, and the 2005 Romantic Times Best Women Novel of the Year Award. His books have been translated into more than 22 languages and several have been international best sellers.

Reviews

[Rosh ~catching up slowly~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

So here's an embarrassing anecdote!

I have been seeing this series all over my GR feed thanks to some friends who read it this Advent and gushed over it. Their enthusiasm was so infectious that I decided to add it to my Christmas reading list. Today, I finally checked the details of the book.

Guess what?

I have already read this trilogy. 😱

More than a decade ago! 😮

And I had no recollection of the title, the cover, or the plot, whatsoever! 👀

It is only when I read the blurb just now that it magically acted as a Pensieve. Faint strands of memory began streaming out, with vague recollections of a David and a Mary, and an epistolary Christmas novel. All I can remember is that I liked it enough, but it was too sugary-sweet. I had enjoyed the first book, liked the second, but found the third one strictly okay.

Going to hit a 4 star as the average of my experiences.

The icing on the cake of embarrassment: I still have the physical copy of the combined edition somewhere in my bookshelf. I know I am not going to reread it, so I have no idea how much longer it will languish there. 😳



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[GG Stewart’s Bookhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart warming and such a great reminder of what love means.

[beautywithbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful book. This is collection of three amazing stories that all intertwined and left you smiling with a broken heart. This is story between David and MaryAnne Parkin. Set in the early 20th century, the Parkins, through their experiences, teach us lessons of life, love and dealing with grief.

In the first story, a young family of Salt Lake City, UT, moves in with a widow, MaryAnne Parkin. The only condition for the young family is to do some housekeeping duties but mostly spend some time with the lonely widow. The families become closer in course of time and experience the magic from old bible box where music and letters appear giving hint about MaryAnne Parking's history. Together they discover what the Christmas holiday is really all about.

Timepiece and The Letter are “prequels” which tell the story of David and MaryAnne Parkin. In Timepiece David and MaryAnne meet, discover love, marry, find the power of forgiveness, and learn to cope with loss of their daughter, Andrea. This story also brings the character Lawerence who is an elderly African American and clock maker.

In The Letter the couple faces love’s greatest challenge, but they also find its truest meaning and learn the lessons that are echoed from the past. Will David ever find his mother?
The stories are interwoven beautifully and leave one weeping at their joys and grieves. Highly recommended.

[Oria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that should be read at home by the fireplace, curled up on a sofa with a mug of mulled wine nearby. It is such a nice beautiful collection of stories, that I found myself overwhelmed at times by the lovely sad love stories between the pages.
There is grief and also joy, but above all there is love, the kind that endures even though it may seem that sometimes is ready to flicker and die, caught between doubt and temptation. There is also hate and despair and violence, and I often paused and asked myself why did the characters have to suffer so much and why is it that sometimes people have to pay so dearly for a few moments of happiness.
Every story seems to say we should live life like there is no tomorrow because, after all, we are but shooting stars on this blue clouded sky called life.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of three stories that tell of the love story between David and MaryAnne Parkin. Set in the early 20th century, the Parkins, through their experiences, teach us lessons of life, love and dealing with grief. The stories are interwoven beautifully and leave one weeping at their joys and griefs. I highly recommend this book as I learned many things about myself and my relationship with my loved ones.

[Tracy Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful book.....3 amazing stories that all intertwined and left you smiling with a broken heart. The Christmas Box has always been one of my favorite stories and it was wonderful to have the other two stories to add to the splendor of this story. MaryAnne and David Parkin are a beautiful couple that share an amazing love story and it really touches you deep inside when you get to know them alone and as a couple. This was a great read for me and I highly recommend it!

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is three books in one. I think I would like three separate books better. The first book "The Christmas Box" is good. The second one "The Timepiece p" was my favorite of the three but the hardest to read emotionally. The third "The Letter" was my least favorite but still good. The hardest part was the fact someone dies at the end of each one. They are all thought provoking and emotionally charged.

[Kim Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I literally couldn't put this book down once I started! I read it in one day! Great characters, engaging plots, and lessons that everyone needs to learn.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read these short stories YEARS ago. One of the first books I purchased. I couldn’t recall the entire story but it came flooding back as I listened to it in audio this time around. RPE is an excellent storyteller and his Christmas stories are always among my favorites. But I forgot how incredibly sad this story is. A lot of heartache but also a lot of hope. The characters never give up and pass their life lessons on to others.

[Melissa-ann Strausser · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Christmas Box was short & sweet. Timepiece was the best of all three. The letter was good although some parts should have been eliminated. The ending of the trilogy was a perfect but sad way 2 end them all.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Salt Lake City setting, appealing characters, compelling if perhaps too complicated plot. Overly lengthy perhaps due to some subplots that do not necessarily add to storyline. But this is definitely a Christmas Classic. Oh, and a TEARJERKER fo sure.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very loving story,and at times so sad.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute bunch of stories - good for drawing up some warm feelings about the past at Christmas time. I like how each stories characters are related to the characters in the other ones. I didn't expect it - I had not heard that it was a trilogy. I thought that it was just a bunch of random Christmas stories. It is so much more. Many tears were shed.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our family is currently reading "The Christmas Box" together and it is wonderful to have them discover it for the first time. I love the two following stories which are sort of a prequel to "The Christmas Box."

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brought together three books I had previously read and made a more complete story than any had been alone. I love the way R.P.Evans writes so this was a wonderful book for the Christmas season.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this every December

[Sara Bauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very heartwarming or Christmas-like. Cried a bit. Super sad. SUPER.

[Meera · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 stars!!!!

Glad to find my tear glands still working...:-D:-D

[Carmen Sandoval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read.. I enjoyed it. I will read the other 2 books in this trilogy.

[Jessika Hoover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really, to be fair, I'd have to give this a 3.5. I liked it, I really did, but I'm not raving about it. As a collection of three novels that exist as a quasi-series, I'm just going to talk a little bit about each of them.

The Christmas Box

I've already reviewed the first novel, The Christmas Box before, and I feel like it sums up my feelings pretty well, so I'm gonna do a little bit of copy & paste here.

"Usually, I'm not the type of person to cry over books. If I read something particularly sad, I usually end up sad for a little while, and then I'm over it. I'm not quite sure what it was about this book--but I ended up in tears. Sure, the ending was sad, but it was beautiful, as well. I have a younger brother, so the message that Mary was trying to make really hit home for me--about loving what we have because we don't know how much longer we'll have it. It's so true that oftentimes, everyone gets caught up in the Christmas season and forgets what it is truly about--our Father giving up His only Son so that we may be forgiven and loved ourselves. I really believe that people should read this little book (it's not very long) every year around this time, just as a touching reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. I know that I will."

NOTE: I read it again this year. And I cried. Again. There's just something about this story that gets to me. Now having read the other books, I can definitely say that The Christmas Box is the most powerful and moving. Evans really shines with this story, and I still recommend it for a great Christmas read.

Timepiece

I really thought this story was so sweet. I enjoyed watching MaryAnne and David fall in love and start a family together, and I started tearing up at the Richard-Jenna storyline (mostly because I'm a daddy's girl). Despite going into the story knowing what we know about Andrea from the first book, the build up and the actual event are still very devastating. My only complaint about this story is that it wasn't really a Christmas story! But that was my own expectation at fault, so I can't really blame Evans.

For those who haven't read anything by Evans, he's kind of like Nicholas Sparks, except with depth. I don't think that he's as "fluffy" as Sparks, but they are comparable on that heartwarming-storyteller level, so you have to be prepared to read that kind of story.

The Letter

This is the sequel to Timepiece, but still a prequel to The Christmas Box...if that makes any sense.

I'm torn about this one. On one hand, there were many things I enjoyed about it. I'll start with those. I really liked seeing things from David's perspective. In Timepiece, we really got to see MaryAnne's side of grief, and in this one, we get to follow David. Not in first-person, mind you, but it was still nice to see what David was going through. I also liked the layers to this one. I still don't know which letter lends itself to the title...maybe one, maybe all. But I liked that all of these plot lines evolved around an array of letters.

At the same time, the many layers to the story made it feel like there was too much going on at times. I don't want to say too much about them because I don't want to give anything away. There were times as I was reading when I'd be reading about one plot line and wondering about what happened to another. It's not so much that it was complicated, just a little too busy, which in turn led to being less believable. Also...not a Christmas story. I don't know why that bugged me so much--maybe it was just that since this was a 3-in-1 edition, I was expecting Christmas to play at least a part in the stories. Once again, that's where my expectations were at fault.



Overall, I still really love The Christmas Box, and I think Evans can tell a good story. The other two novels aren't necessary for readers of The Christmas Box, but they do add an interesting background to the characters that we see. For fans of Richard Paul Evans, I definitely recommend this collection. For those who aren't fans or who are still skeptical, I recommend just reading The Christmas Box and skipping this edition.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

"... there are things not only worth dying for, but, more importantly, worth living for. For life's greatest philosophy is not handed down in stoic texts and dusty tomes, but lived, in each breath and act of human compassion. For love has always demanded sacrifice, and no greater love is there than that for which our lives are traded."

Another great read compliments of my mother. I was worried this would be both sappy and sermonizing but to my delight, was neither. An entertaining read about a family and their friends before and during the Great Depression. Because if is a Chistmas trilogy, there are morals and life lessons to be learned -- themes of abandonment, family, love, faith, forgiveness, racism, privilege, and allyship. With these large themes, the story is often challenging -- and this one is. The story challenged my way of thinking and I often found myself wondering if I could make the same decisions as some of the characters -- could I show such high moral standards in my own life? I believe this story will stay with me for a while. There is much to think about. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Rachel Hisel · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I adroitly rationalized my absence from home on necessity and told myself that my family would someday welcome the sacrifices by feasting, with me, on the fruits of my labors. In retrospect, I should have tasted those fruits for bitterness a little more often.”

“”That is exactly what we are talking about. Lost opportunities. I can always make more money. But how shall I go about reclaiming a lost childhood? The only promise of childhood is that it will end.” He paused in reflection. “And when it is gone, it is gone.””

“I do not believe it is circumstances that produces such greatness any more than it is the canvas that makes the artist. Adversity merely presents the surface on which we render our souls’ most exacting likeness. It is in the darkest skies that stars are best seen.”

“I am not a believer in love at first sight. For love, in its truest form, is not the thing of starry-eyed or star-crossed lovers, it is far more organic, requiring nurturing and time to fully bloom, and, as such, seen best not in its callow youth but in its wrinkled maturity.”

[Amanda Dzimianski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this trilogy - and I adored the first two books. The final book was so disappointing, I can only give 3 stars.
{Spoiler ahead} Although beautifully written, I feel the story did not provide enough character development, and crammed too many events into a small space of time, creating a forced, stilted, and unsatisfying reconciliation between the main characters. Compared to the first two books, MaryAnne and David felt alien and - no pun intended - very uncharacteristic in the way they allowed their relationship to deteriorate...the way they gave up was so disheartening, it seemed impossible to trust their characters moving forward.
The tale was interesting and poignant, but utterly disappointing overall, capped by the tragic and tear-jerking ending. The actions - and inactions - of the Parkins left a bad taste in my mouth that even the final heroics and lovely truths could not wash away.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book to have something to read during Christmas time. It was a bargain buy at a used bookstore during the summer. It sat on my to read stand, but every time I finished a summer read book, I would look at my stand. That book kept calling me... tried to hold off until Christmas. As you can see, I broke down and picked it up in October. I read the back, and I thought it sounded like it would be a cute read. I can say I was not ready for the roller coaster of emotions this book invoked. I smiled, my heart broke, I laughed a little, sat in shock, and then cried... not in that order. I never wanted this book to end. Each page sucked me in even more. And at one point, I thought this story would be a great movie...oh wait, it is a movie playing in my head while reading it. That is how good it was written.

This book is a must-read if you are looking for a love story, with a few twists and turns that gives your heart joy of knowing love never dies. Would re-read again and again.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

While The Christmas Box plays out over Christmas don't not read it because the holiday has passed, it starts a trilogy that spans the calendar and years. It's a story of life, when it's confusing, when it's wonderfully amazing, when it pulls you to the bottom of your soul. It's a love story but if you're looking for fictional romance don't bother, this is about the love of forever that is worked for, fought for and frequently lost. Honestly I found this book to be about life and both found and lost myself in its pages. It brushes pain of the elderly and lonely, the depression and racism of the time while celebrating the hardworking and humbling class of many though to few. It made me question much about myself, but ultimately left me hopeful! "There is nothing anyone can do with the past except let it fade"

[Kendall Norman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book! Unfortunately, the first book in the collection is the only one that gives cozy Christmas vibes. Maybe I had the wrong idea of what this collection of stories would be, but from the cover and descriptions, I thought it would be three cozy Christmas stories. Instead, after the first book (which was great), books two and three were just one tragedy after another! The morals being taught were good, but when you go into a book thinking it’s going to be pleasant Christmas stories and instead get disturbing and sad violence and drama, it’s quite jarring! On top of that, the villains of the story use the “n” word over and over and over. It’s painful to read, and ends on a sad note. If you’re looking for some nice Christmas stories, just stick with the first one—The Christmas Box!

[Kandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this twice in my teens, and I absolutely loved it. I have just re read it as an adult and it didn't strike me as hard as the first read but its still a beautiful book. It has really positive messages about forgiveness, racial equality, standing up for your beliefs, etc. The writer has a very sophisticated manner of story telling and honestly there were some words I had never encountered before, but that's a good thing. I don't know how to describe the book except it's sappy, and sometimes people hate that, but the story works with it. Kind of like a feel-good/ugly cry book. Lots of ups and downs!

[Maryalene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable collection of three stories/novels.

The first is short and sweet and describes a young couple coming to live with an older widow. The second is longer and flashes back to when the widow met her husband. The final and longest book is about hardships faced by the widow and her husband during their marriage.

I probably would have given this four stars except that I felt like the final novel had a little too much packed into it. The beauty of the first two stories was that they were direct and to the point. The last one introduced characters and side plots that seemed unnecessary (I'm looking at you Deirdre.)

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not an organized religion sort of gal and came to these books with a bit of supposition that they would be preachy and in a way they are but in a very gentle and reassuring way. I am a spiritual person and these books spoke to me. I loved the way they built upon one another, revealing parts of the story as you went along and I found the prose easy to read and yet rich and interesting. These are stories to warm the heart and enrich our lives and affirm our humanity.

[Deb Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three stories were a joy to read. Written in such a warm, personal, flowing manner. It was hard to put down and I did wake a couple of times to read. It was published the month we lost my Husband's Dad. That man loved Christmas and the wife he lost before him. I so recommend everyone reading this trilogy that is combined for ease.