Evans graduated from
Cottonwood High School in Murray City, Utah. He graduated with a
B.A. degree from the
University of Utah in 1984. While working as an advertising executive he wrote a Christmas story for his children. Unable to find a publisher or an agent, he self-published the work in 1993 as a paperback
novella entitled
The Christmas Box. He distributed it to bookstores in his community. The book became a local bestseller, prompting Evans to publish the book in this region. The next year
The Christmas Box hit #2 on
The New York Times Best Seller list, inciting an auction for the publishing rights among the world's top publishing houses. Evans signed a publishing deal with
Simon & Schuster, who paid him $4.2 million in an advance. Released in
hardcover in 1995,
The Christmas Box became the first book to simultaneously reach the number-one position on the
New York Times bestseller list for both paperback and hardcover editions. That same year, the book was made into a
television movie of the same title, starring
Richard Thomas and
Maureen O'Hara. Evans has subsequently written 36 nationally best-selling books, including some for children, with conservative
Christian themes and appealing to
family values. His 1996 book
Timepiece was made into a television movie featuring
Naomi Watts,
James Earl Jones, and
Ellen Burstyn, as were
The Locket (1998), which starred
Vanessa Redgrave;
A Perfect Day (2006), which starred
Rob Lowe and
Christopher Lloyd;
The Mistletoe Promise (2016), which starred
Jaime King and
Luke Macfarlane; and
The Mistletoe Inn (2017), which starred
Alicia Witt and
David Alpay. In the spring of 1997, Evans founded Christmas Box House International, an organization devoted to building shelters and providing services for abused and neglected children. As of 2017, more than 35,000 children had been served by Christmas Box House facilities. Evans, a member of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lives in
Salt Lake City,
Utah with his wife Keri, five children, and one grandson. ==Bibliography==