East Texans donate Christmas decorations to Gilmer family who lost theirs in tornado

GILMER, Texas (KLTV) - It has been nine months since a tornado hit the Gilmer area. For the Glarborg family, their shed was destroyed when a tree fell on it in the storm. Inside the shed? Christmas decorations, pictures, and memories.

Some of the memories include the family’s ornament tradition.

“Ever since they were little, I would buy them ornaments and then throughout the years, once they got older, every year they get to buy an ornament for themselves, something that represents that year,” Maegan Glarborg said.

Maegan Glarborg and her daughters Kadince, 14, and Payton, 11, decorate every year together.

“Family is very important to us and the decorations kind of just give us a reason to get out and come together and decorate,” Maegan said.

After losing their decorations, Glarborg saw a community Facebook post that asked, “What do you need?” prompting people to donate items rather than throwing them away this holiday season. When she shared what happened to her decorations in the storm, people across East Texas, including Arp and Gilmer, donated Christmas trees, ornaments, and a Christmas village.

Chelsey and Linzy Carr saw the post.

“We wanted to pretty much just bless another family. We have a lot of decorations and she needed them more than we did,” Chelsey Carr said.

But what the Carrs did not know when they donated the Christmas village was that it reminded Glarborg of her late mother.

“I was tearing up. I was like ‘Oh my gosh, you have no idea,’” Glarborg said. “She passed away suddenly two years ago, and she left me the villages and so those got crushed.”

“It really was so special. I just was shocked because out of all the things,” Glarborg said. “God places things like that to happen to remind us of them to give us joy.”

And although all of the decorations are new, “Everything I see was in other people’s homes and it has memories from other people’s Christmases.... It just really is the spirit of Christmas.”

“I love that this doesn’t go here, this doesn’t go there, but it all goes together. It was just donated out of the kindness of their heart and that’s what I see whenever I look at it.”

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