'Christmas Jars' with author Jason Wright

December 18, 2015

Editor

Looking for a way to make Christmas more meaningful?

You might consider trying out what author Jason Wright suggests in his book, Christmas Jars. It's pretty simple. Just contribute all your loose change over time to a jar and surprise someone with it as a gift for Christmas.

Wright joined Glenn on radio Friday to share what prompted him to write the book and what has happened in the decade since he wrote it. Based on anecdotes that have come in, he calculated somewhere between $8 and $10 million has been given away in change.

"And I frankly think that that could be a conservative number," Wright said.

He added, "It's not just something you do during the holidays. It's something you do all year long."

Listen to the segment or read the transcript below.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

GLENN: Jason Wright wrote a book years ago that has really, truly changed so many people's traditions in families. It is called The Christmas Jars. And Jason is joining us now.

Hey, Jason, how are you, sir?

JASON: I am so well. How are you, my friend?

GLENN: I'm very good. So you wrote this book. And I want you to explain it for anyone who hasn't read this book because I think that this is a tradition that, A, you should read to your family and a tradition that you can so easily do -- I know so many people that do this now, and it really has changed their holiday. So explain the book.

JASON: Yes, it's remarkable, Glenn. I have you to thank for so much of this.

I found myself 11 years ago, the most selfish person I knew. I sat down with my wife, she agreed. We came up with this idea of a Christmas jar. We put our change in a little purple jar on the counter, and we would fill it up and we'd give it away at Christmastime. And we didn't even know who would get it or how that first delivery would go. We just knew that every day, as we dropped our change in that jar, no matter the temperature outside or the date on the calendar, we would think about the needs of someone else and the real meaning of Christmas and the life of the savior and that daily sacrifice for us. And we gave that first jar away. And it really, truly changed our lives.

And the next year, I decided to write this little book. The publisher fired it off to some people, kind of on a whim to see if anyone would talk about it. And this guy named Glenn Beck who had a pretty big radio show said, "You know what, I'm going to take this thing home and read it over the weekend." And as I recall, you came back Monday morning and just gushed and gushed, and it launched a career.

GLENN: Yeah. I don't know if that is entirely true. But it did really well. New York Times best-seller. So tell me the actual story for anybody who doesn't know.

JASON: So the story is about a fictional story, of course. It's sparked by our experience as a family, but it's not based on our experience. But it's about a young reporter who stumbled upon this tradition of the Christmas jar in her small little town and decides she wants to uncover who gave the first jar, where did it come from. And it turns out that the origin is really personal for her. And it goes back to a little baby being abandoned by a single mom in a greasy chicken diner -- chicken and biscuits diner and being adopted and raised by a single mom. It all comes full circle at the end of the book. And you discover where the movement began, why it began, and how one little jar changed not just one family's lives, but many, many lives around the country.

GLENN: So this is a book now that has been out for, how many years? Ten years?

JASON: This is the ten-year anniversary.

GLENN: That's unbelievable. I got at it the first year, Jason?

JASON: You did. And that part of the story is true. I remember you telling me that you took it home over the weekend because it was the smallest little advanced copy that anyone had sent you. And you felt you could plow through it over the weekend.

GLENN: I do remember that. I get books sent to me all the time. And I got piles of them next to my bed. And I read what I can. Very few really interest me. Especially fiction. And I saw this big pile and this really teeny book. And I thought, "Man, I can read that in the bathroom." And I read it over the weekend and I came in. And now I hear it's sold a million copies.

JASON: Yeah, it crossed about a million copies over ten years. And it's just -- it's hard to believe. It's now become about more than the book. You know, I would love for your listeners that haven't discovered the book yet to go out and read it. But it's not about the book anymore. It's about a movement. It's about millions and millions of dollars being given away in spare change around the country.

GLENN: How are you estimating -- I've heard the estimate of $8 million and change has been given away?

JASON: Yeah, it's based on the anecdotes that have come in and the dollar amount. We get about $220, the average amount, per jar is what we've heard the decade. So we did a little math based on the number of books sold, the number of people that actually don't just stick the book on a shelf but decide to pass the book on with the jar, we come up with a figure somewhere between eight and $10 million and change. And I frankly think that that could be a conservative number.

PAT: So, Jason, how does it exactly work? You just -- you put a jar out, right? And then every time you get spare change. Put it in that charge.

GLENN: Can I ask you a question, does it hurt anyone anymore? Because I rarely have change in my pockets because I use debit cards everywhere I go.

JASON: Absolutely. That's a great point. And, you know, the best thing to do is just to cheat a little bit. It's not just something you do during the holidays. It's something you do all year long. So maybe change doesn't go in the jar every day or even every week. It does in my household.

But from time to time, when I'm thinking about it and I'm in 7-Eleven or the grocery store or the Post Office, you know, I get a couple dollars back in change intentionally and it goes home, it goes in the jar. You know, the kids are digging through couch cushions and the washer and dryer and the cup holders in the car. You can still find plenty of change. And, you know, if it's $10 you give away, if it's 50 bucks you give away, if it's $100, to the right family at the right time, it can be a significant blessing in their lives.

PAT: Yeah, and after you've accumulated that money in the jar during the course of the year, you choose someone to give it to. How do you make that determination? Because you've been doing this for a long time now. So what kind of system do you have to decide who gets the money?

JASON: Well, you know, I would encourage people -- there's a new e-book out this year. It's called Christmas Jars Journey. That's exactly the true story of our -- the Wright family's very first jar. And I go into detail about how we came up with this, sitting around the kitchen table. I mean, it's like an old movie. We took a sheet of paper. We made a list of six or eight people that we thought could benefit from it, neighbors, friends from church, teachers, et cetera. We selected a young man that was getting ready to leave the country to Mexico to do some volunteer church work. And it was at the family -- you know, they did okay. But the money would be a blessing. It was about $80 that first year in our jar because it was only a couple of months.

And then we set out in the minivan. And, again, I encourage people to check out Christmas Jars Journey for the kind of behind scenes of this. Because this moment, this night in 2004, it changed our lives. It changed the whole trajectory, not just of our family, but of me personally to really understand that Christmas is not a 24-hour holiday. You don't flip on and off a switch, think about the Savior, and then put him away until the next year. It becomes a part of you all year long. And the Christmas Jar helps that in a really small away.

GLENN: I just got an email, a text saying that I'm in this book several times.

JASON: You are. Several times. And I just can't overstate, Glenn, that you having me on your show back then, radio and TV, talking about the book, you read -- you know, it's been a long time. You've interviewed a million guests since then, but you read most of that first chapter on the air. And it just gave life to this book. We were struggling to really find any traction and to get anybody to talk -- in fact, I had a hard time getting the darn thing published. I had publishers and agents both tell me. This thing will never, ever end up in a bookstore ever. I had one agent tell me -- this is in the e-book, I had one agent tell me in a rejection letter: I like the idea, I just wish someone else had written it.

GLENN: Holy cow.

PAT: Wow.

JASON: I have that on my desk. I look at it almost every day. And then Glenn Beck comes along and gives it a breath of life and a career was born.

GLENN: Wow, that's amazing. Well, I'm happy for you, Jason. You know how I feel about you and what a great writer -- I mean, we were just talking about you just the other day in and around the office about what a great writer you are and a great storyteller you are. I mean, I've enjoyed many of your books. The -- what was the Charles one? Finding Charles?

JASON: Recovering Charles. Based down in New Orleans, yeah.

GLENN: That was a great one. And there was another one that you wrote --

STU: It was "50 Shades of Gray" you're thinking of.

JASON: No, I wrote The Wednesday Letters, which is one that you and I talked about. That's the one where I gave out my cellphone number, and I almost shut down AT&T with phonecalls over about three days. That was wonderful.

GLENN: Yeah, The Wednesday's Letters was another one. And there -- I hate to say it this way, but people understand, almost Nicholas Sparks in a way.

JASON: Yeah, Nicholas Sparks with a little more touch of faith because faith is so very important to me. I would give everything I'm doing up for my faith.

PAT: And without the cheese. You know.

JASON: Yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: There's nobody standing out in a rainstorm making out.

PAT: No.

GLENN: And it's not just a coincidence, it's a God thing in Jason's books.

JASON: Amen. God is at the center of everything. So true.

GLENN: Yeah, that's great. Thank you so much, Jason. I appreciate it. You can buy The Christmas Jars Journey: The Behind the Scenes True Story of the Very First Christmas Jar. It's an e-book available from Amazon.com. And while you're there, if you've not read the Christmas Jars, read the Christmas Jars. Buy it. You'll so enjoy it. It's, what, 200 pages. Something like that. It really is -- it's 100 pages. It's an easy one-night read and one that your whole family will enjoy and could actually change the way your family does Christmas. It's really, truly tremendous. Jason Wright is the author's name. Christmas jars and the Christmas jars reunion and journey. Find it at Amazon. Thanks, Jason, I appreciate it. God bless.

JASON: Thank you, sir.

The case for mass deportation

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Unchecked illegal immigration into America may be the most dangerous issue our country faces today, and with every day it goes unsolved, the risk of a terrorist attack of 9/11 proportions only increases.

Despite the risk, we can't even touch the subject without the Left and the mainstream media having a meltdown. Even suggesting that the tide of undocumented immigrants may pose some sort of national problem will quickly get you labeled as a racist, stumping intelligent conversation before it can even begin. But as any right-minded Conservative will tell you, calls to close the border and deport the people who stole into our country have nothing to do with race.

In his most recent TV special, Glenn described in detail what sorts of dangers we have let into our countries, with facts and figures that prove that if we don't act soon we will be in deep trouble. Glenn made it clear: we need to conduct a mass deportation or risk being torn apart from within. Here are three reasons that make the case for mass deportations:

Islamic terror cells are forming in South America.

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Congressional testimony from the Committee on Homeland Security in 2011 revealed that Hugo Chavez held a "Secret Summit" involving the Supreme Leader of Hamas, the Chief of Operations for Hezbollah, and the Secretary General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Caracas, Venezuela. It is clear that ever since (and possibly before) there has been a Radical Islamic Terrorist presence in Venezuela. Right now there is an Iranian beachhead off the Venezuelan coast on Margarita Island, where the Iranian government is running criminal activities and recruiting and training Venezuelan gangs. These gangs have used our border crisis to infiltrate the U.S. The most infamous of these gangs, Tren de Aragua, has been declared a terrorist organization by the State of Texas.

Terrorist-backed gangs are smuggling in weapons and tearing through the country.

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What are these Iranian-trained and backed gangs doing in America? As you can imagine, nothing good. Just this year alone an estimated million rounds of ammunition, 1.2 million gun parts, 3,000 body armor vests, and thousands of pieces of other military paraphernalia have been smuggled across the border. On top of that, they have already taken over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, and are now terrorizing the remaining residents.

It's noteworthy that the gang managed to move into the apartment in the first place because they received subsidies through an NGO that was assisting the Colorado asylum seekers program, using money given to the state by the Biden administration in 2021.

Gangs have attacked military bases.

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It hasn't stopped at apartment complexes either. A leak from the U.S. Army revealed that the gangs have launched probing attacks on military facilities within the U.S. Members have been sighted taking surveillance photos of Lackland Air Force Base, as well as firing multiple shots into the facility. Another military base in Texas, Fort Sam Houston, caught a gang member attempting to gain access to the facility. This coincides with suspicious activity documented within the Permian Basin, the largest oil field in the U.S.

They are smuggling in vast quantities of military equipment, probing and surveying military facilities and key energy locations, and taking over residential areas. What exactly is going on and why isn't the federal government taking it more seriously?

VP debate recap: A Vance victory

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This might have been the most consequential VP debate in recent memory.

For those of you who missed the debate, it was a decisive victory for J.D. Vance and the Trump-Vance team as a whole. Vance presented a calm, collected, and considerate side of the Republican party that compliments Trump and helps to make their platform more palatable. Meanwhile, Tim Walz had a lackluster, though certainly not catastrophic, night. He had a few embarrassing gaffes and came across as overly nervous, but like Vance, kept it civil.

Both VP candidates entered the stage as relative unknowns to most Americans, and by the end, both men had given an accurate representation of their characters. Here is a brief recap just in case you missed the debate:

J.D. Vance looked great

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Vance came out of the gate swinging, with a stellar opening statement that helped set the stage for the rest of the debate. He delivered a concise yet compelling recap of his life, which framed him as everything Walz claims to be: a relatable veteran from humble beginnings who earned his position through hard work and service. He then went on to deliver a clear and palatable defense of Trump's platform and mission while cooly drawing attention to the failures of the Biden-Harris administration.

Overall, J.D. Vance looked incredibly presidential. He presented himself not just as a capable vice president, but as a strong successor to Trump and as a valid replacement if anything should happen to the former president between now and the end of his hypothetical second term. Vance also successfully dispelled the notion that he is "weird" as Walz called him, and if anyone looked strange during the debate, it certainly wasnot Vance.

Tim Walz's gaffes

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While Tim Walz certainly didn't have an awful night, he did not stack up well against Vance. Walz had a major gaffe around halfway through the debate when asked to explain the change in his position on assault weapon bans. Walz then claimed that he had befriended school shooters during his time in office. While that was clearly not the intention of what he was saying, it was embarrassing nonetheless.

Another weak moment was when the moderators asked Walz to explain a claim he had made regarding being in Hong Kong during the infamous Tiananmen Square protest in 1989, which has since been proven false. Walz gave a long-winded, rambling answer about taking students to visit China and how Trump should have joined in on those trips, before being called out by the moderator for dodging the question.

Vance fact-checked the fact-checkers

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One of the conditions of the CBS debate was that the moderators would not fact-check the debaters live, but instead rely on after-the-matter fact-checking. But, CBS couldn't keep to its own rules. While Vance was describing the migrant crisis that has swelled during the Biden-Harris administration, one of the CBS moderators, Margaret Brennan, chimed in with a "fact check." She claimed that the Haitian migrants in Ohio have legal status, to which Vance clapped back by calling Brennan out for breaking the rules of the debate, then proceeded to correct her, explaining that they only had legal status due to overreach by the Biden-Harris administration.

Dockworker strike: Everything you need to know

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At midnight on September 30th, dockworkers across the East Coast went on strike, effectively cutting the country's import and export capabilities in half.

Don't go out and panic buy a pallet of toilet paper and instant ramen just yet. It's going to take some time for the full effects of the strike to be felt and hopefully, the strike will be good and over by then. But there are no guarantees, and this election cycle could get significantly more insane as we draw near to the election. And even if the strike is settled quickly, it shows growing cracks in our infrastructure and industrial capacity that needs to be addressed if America wants to maintain its global dominance.

Here is everything you need to know about the dockworker strike:

What do the dockworkers want?

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As with most strikes, pay is the driving factor behind this situation the country now finds itself in. The longshoremen want more pay, and with rising inflation who can blame them? After all, working the docks is hard and dangerous business, and fair compensation only seems... fair. But when you compare the wage of a dockworker, which is around $100,000 to $200,00 a year to the average income in America of $56,000, suddenly they seem significantly less sympathetic.

How much money are they asking for? For most Americans, a three percent raise is considered high, but the unions are asking up to 15 percent, depending on location. On top of that, they are asking for a 77 percent raise over the next six years. The West Coast dock workers recently made off with a 36 percent raise and were considered lucky. These increases in costs are just going to be transferred to the end consumer, and we'll likely see a jump in prices if these terms are accepted.

The other major ticket item is protection against automation. Autonomous ports are quickly becoming a reality, with major ports in China that are capable of handling vast amounts of cargo being run by a single office, not an army of dock workers. Naturally, the longshoremen are concerned that their jobs are at risk of being replaced by machines that can work harder, longer, for cheaper, and without risk of injury.

How will it affect Americans?

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Don't panic yet!

It is going to take some time for consumers to feel the effects of the strike and it is possible that a resolution could happen at any time.

Week one should be pretty much business as usual. It might be a good idea to stock up on fruit and other perishables, but there is no need to go COVID-lockdown-crazy yet.

Week two is when you'll first start feeling the pinch. Fresh fruits and veggies will become scarce, along with other imported goods like shoes, toys, and TVs. Prices will start to creep up as the shelves will start to look a little sparse. The supply of tools, lumber, and other hardware materials will also begin to dry up.

By week three, the cracks in the system will really start to show. Entire industries will begin to slow down, or even stop. Factory workers will get furloughed and sent home without pay. Stores will have to ration items, prices will be sky-high, and online orders will come to a standstill. At this point, the strike will have escalated into a full-blown crisis, and even if it was resolved immediately, it would still take weeks to restore everything to working order.

At the four-week mark, the situation will have developed into a national security crisis, and as Glenn describes, a poly-crisis. Small business will be closing their doors, entire brands will be out of stock, and everything that remains will be so expensive it is unaffordable. By this point, the holiday season will be drawing near and there will be a rush on any sort of gift or decor items left. At this point, irreparable damage to our economy will have occurred and it will be months if not years before it can be mended.

While that sounds bleak, with the election just around the corner, it seems unlikely that the Biden-Harris administration will let it get that bad. That being said, their administration has not been characterized by good decision-making and reasonable policy, so there are no guarantees.

What can be done?

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The big question is "Why hasn't Biden already done something?"

President Biden, who ran on the image of a blue-collar, union-worker, has been uncharacteristically absent from the issue. Despite his earlier involvement in a train strike, Biden has declared that involvement in union fights is not a presidential issue unless it getsreally bad.

So where's the line? At what point will he step in? He has to understand that an economic crisis right before the election will reflect poorly on Kamala.

Join Glenn TONIGHT for BlazeTV's exclusive VP debate coverage!

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Join Glenntonight for Vice Presidential debate coverage you do not want to miss!

Tonight is the first (and only) Vice Presidential debate, and it will be hosted by CBS News. But don't be reliant on CBS News or any other mainstream media channel for their biased coverage. Join the BlazeTV live stream tonight to get the uncensored truth alongside top-quality commentary from Glenn and the rest of the world-class panel.

Glenn is joined by Megyn Kelly, Liz Wheeler, Allie Beth Stuckey, Steve Deace, Jill Savage, Dave Landau, and more to cover the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate. Blaze Media subscribers gain access to live chat with the fantastic panel of hosts! If you subscribe today by visiting BlazeTV.com/debate you will get $40 off of your annual subscription with code DEBATE. This is the largest discount ever offered, so take advantage NOW!

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