34 pages • 1 hour read
Richard Paul EvansThe Christmas Box
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
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Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaThemes
The Importance of Familial Love
In the novella, familial love is a source of immense joy and pain, the most precious gift afforded to humans during their lives. Evans shows that families do not need to be biological to experience fulfillment and love, as illustrated by how Richard, Keri, and Jenna become Mary’s found family. The four choose to have a single Christmas tree together rather than two in the separate wings of the house. This symbolizes the group’s identification as each other’s family.
It is clear that the singular Christmas tree and what it represents brings immense joy to Mary; she feels that she has been gifted the love of another family in the final months of her life: “She was absolutely delighted when Keri suggested that we might all enjoy sharing the same tree together” (56). Richard and Keri realize that, rather than needing help with housework and cooking as her ad suggested, Mary was actually motivated by her longing for company: Mary “had solicited a family to move in with her more for the sake of ‘family’ than real physical need” (55).
Mary’s status as an honorary family member is confirmed by Jenna’s acceptance of her as a “surrogate grandmother.” Mary, for example, attends Jenna’s dance recital and reads to her as Jenna sits on her lap (56). Furthermore, Richard confides to Steve that “[Mary’s] like family to us” (92). Like family, the four are there for each other through challenging and unpleasant times. For example, Richard and Keri care for Mary in her dying hours.
Familial love also brings immense grief, as seen by Richard, Keri, and Jenna’s grief at Mary’s passing. The novella also explores grief through Mary’s sorrow over the death of her daughter. As Mary writes in her letters: “Another Christmas season has come. The time of joy and peace. Yet how great a void still remains in my heart” (100). The epithet on Mary’s tombstone, “a loving mother” (124), illustrates how Mary’s role as a mother to Andrea was the most powerful and affecting relationship of her life, despite Andrea’s tragically brief time on Earth. Familial love, the novella suggests, is a powerful and emotive force that shapes lives.
The Magic of Christmas
The novella establishes Christmas as an inherently joyful, magical, and wondrous time. Spending the Christmas season in snowy Utah is an important motivating factor for Richard and Keri’s move; Richard longingly remembers “the thin air and white winters of home” (18). In the warmer climate of Southern California, he had come “to expect a green Christmas” (as opposed to a white Christmas) with “great disappointment” (17). A subtropical Christmas is characterized as less romantic and pleasurable to Richard as a teenager; a white Christmas clearly remains a priority in his adulthood.
With its ornate, old-fashioned appearance, Mary’s home is symbolically linked with the magic of a traditional Christmas: “The Parkin home was a resplendent, red-block Victorian mansion with ornate cream-and-raspberry wood trim and dark green shingles” (21). It is a romantic home—a stereotypically perfect location for a Christmas miracle to occur. Tension builds toward Christmas. As Richard reflects, he “treasures [...] the memory of the Christmas season when the Christmas Box found me” (16). This foreshadows that an important event will take place during the Christmas season that will affect the family.
The Christmas Box is established as wondrous and otherworldly through the magical music it emanates, which reaches Richard through his dream: “I unclasped the silver buckle and opened the lid slowly. The music stopped” (66). The Christmas Box matches the ornate, old-fashioned beauty of Mary’s house, but is endowed with extra powers that connect to its heartbreaking contents: letters from Mary to her deceased daughter, Andrea.
The Christmas Box draws Richard to it so that he can learn to treasure the time he has with his beloved daughter, Jenna. The box comes to symbolize the love Richard feels for his own children, as well as the love that all parents feel for their children. Parental love has a divine element for Richard, reminding him of the Christian belief about God’s love for his son, Jesus: “The sacred contents of that box are a parent's pure love for a child, manifested first by a Father's love for all His children, as He sacrificed that which He loved most and sent His son to earth on that Christmas day so long ago” (125). The magic of Christmas and the Christmas Box is attributed to a divine, religious origin, a magic that brings familial connection, generosity, and love.
The Journey from Materialism to Deeper Emotional and Spiritual Truths
Initially, Richard and Keri are motivated by their financial situation when they decide to move into Mary’s house. Their scarce finances are illustrated through Keri’s clever frugality: “[I]n matters financial, Keri became expert at making much from little” (18). External circumstances propel their move into Mary’s house, with the upcoming winter posing a threat and increasing the novella’s tension.
When Keri and Richard find Mary’s ad, Keri reflects: “[W]ith winter coming on, our heating bill is going to go through the roof in this drafty place and I don't know where the extra money will come from. This way we might actually put some money aside” (20). The couple is motivated by material concerns: They hope to save money for their future, and living with Mary will allow them to stop paying rent.
Richard especially is preoccupied with finances, such as growing his new, small business. He wants to grow a successful enterprise so that his family will be comfortable. However, despite his good intentions, he fails to grasp the fleeting nature of Jenna’s childhood. He prioritizes materialistic concerns over quality time with loved ones. Richard recounts the story from a perch in the future. In retrospect, he reflects on his former priorities with remorse. This illustrates his growth as a character through the course of the story: “I adroitly rationalized my absence from home on necessity and told myself that my family would someday welcome the sacrifice by feasting, with me, on the fruits of my labors” (59).
The family—initially motivated by financial concerns—soon comes to reflect that Mary’s house provides far more than a rent break. The family, including Jenna, grows close to Mary. Mary becomes a dear friend and confidant to Keri, as illustrated by their daily rituals and the way that they prioritize spending time together. The time that Jenna spends on Mary’s lap is more valuable than the savings the family makes: “She looked around the room then ran to Mary. Mary hugged her tightly. [...] She crawled onto Mary's lap” (71).
In particular, Richard learns about the fleeting nature of childhood. Through his connection with Mary and divine intervention, Richard comes to recognize that “my daughter’s childhood” is “the greatest gift of Christmas” (119). This shift in understanding is illustrated by the emotional way he holds his daughter to him, treasuring her existence and the enormous love that he feels for her: “I understood what Mary had been trying to teach me. I stood up and walked up the stairs where my little girl lay sleeping. I picked up her warm little body and cradled her tightly in my arms” (118). In Richard’s reflection, Mary is established as an important teacher of emotional truths, learned via her own experiences with joy and tragedy, and the life and death of Andrea.
