This is a made-for-TV Christmas movie starring Hollywood legend Maureen O'Hara as Mary Parkin, a widow who is being cared for by ski-shop owner Richard Evans (Richard Thomas) and his wife, Keri (Annette O'Toole). They moved into Mary's estate after Richard struggles to balance his family and career life.As with many families, there is a husband or wife who seem to put work over family. This movie beautifully depicts Mary giving the career-oriented Richard several lectures in having a healthy family life and has him guessing what the greatest gift one could have is - as it is revealed by the end of the film.There are quite a few sappy moments, but the characters were well-acted for the most part and the plot was quite solid, giving us a pretty captivating film with many heartfelt dramatic moments. In addition to the drama, there is also a touch of fantasy elements that give the film a bit of suspense and intrigue. Overall, a good one to watch during Christmas time.Grade B

Now I love Christmas films, Scrooge(1951), It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle On 34th Street(1947) and the first two Home Alone movies all to name a few. That said, while not quite a classic, The Christmas Box was a lovely film to watch. And along with The Reading Room, it is for me one of the better Hallmark films. I do agree that the story line is corny and clichéd, but what made the Christmas Box so watchable was the suitably understated acting and a very poignant ending. The direction is good, the pacing is efficient enough to not make the film too sappy and the music is a beauty. The script does have a touch of honesty and heart as well, that I did appreciate. But the acting was what made the film. I cannot say I care for Richard Thomas that much, but his acting is very understated here and it works. Annette O' Toole is as lovely as ever, while Maureen O' Hara is a sheer pleasure in this film. Overall, very nicely done and moving. 8/10 Bethany Cox

So I heard a really crazy theory about the Christmas Box... It seems that the original story was actually written by Stephen King, under the pen name Richard Paul Evans. Apparently, SK didn't want to compromise the integrity of his genre, so he adopted the pseudonym. This cherished Christmas tale is actually a whimsical, warmhearted version of The Shining. Here is the evidence: 1. Two major characters, Richard Thomas and Annette O'Toole, appear in both a past Stephen King movie (IT) and in the Christmas Box. If you don't believe me, google both of their names together.2. Both the Shining and the Christmas Box portray families with a mother, father, and a single, young child.3. These families share other similarities--both have recently relocated to a new place--one on a ski resort and the other to a ski town (where the father is setting up a ski lodge!).4. Both fathers are extremely work-oriented and this causes considerable strain on their relationships with their wives.5. Both fathers are plagued by dreams or visions that occur shortly after moving the new place. This causes tension with both couples, yet in each case, the children understand the situation on a deeper level.6. Both children form strong bonds unrelated adults who try to help them through personal crises.7. Character names in the Christmas Box have strong ties to SK's work: the 6 characters in the Christmas Box were: Richard Evans, Mary Parkin, Keri Evans, Jenna Evans, George, Stephen Hoover, and two unnamed characters. Clearly, Richard could be tied to SK through both SK's other pen name, Richard Bachman, and the fact that Richard is a recurrent character in many SK stories (The Shining contains the character Dick Halloran=RICHARD) or it could be that Richard was named after the actor that played him, much like Jack in the Shining was named after Jack Nicholson. Keri Evans is named for the title character of SK's Carrie. George has appeared as a character name in numerous SK works, including IT and Dolores Claiborne (Dolores's maiden name was St. GEORGE). Stephen Hoover could be named for SK, himself! This might just be a lot (7) coincidences, or it could be that SK, desperate to extend his creative forces far outside of the horror genre,adopted the alternate name Richard Paul Evans and began writing inspirational, family-oriented, Christmas stories.

"The Christmas Box" tries to mix together several elements--corny melodrama, supernatural thriller, redemptive tale--but to my mind succeeds best at showing what good actors can do with fairly mediocre material. In the opening shot I thought, "Wow, got to be a Hallmark TV Movie"--which it is, I learned from the closing credits. That should tell you about all you need to know. Richard Thomas is quite good as the husband/father who needs to learn a lesson, and of course Maureen O'Hara would be great reading the weekly supermarket ad, so she makes this movie was very watchable. The movie has a "secret" that the plot hinges on, but if you haven't guessed it by the first ten minutes, you're not paying attention. That removed a lot of the thrust of the story for me, but it was still enjoyable going along for the ride. It's got a lot of sentimentality, but if a movie can't be sentimental at Christmas, when can it?