Holiday ornaments decorate life all year long in this Belgian shop

ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) — Getting ready for the holiday season has never been stressful for Christel Dauwe — after all, her holiday period lasts all year long in her Christmas ornament shop in the Belgian city of Antwerp.

Her collecting began in her teenage years, and she now has more than 64,000 ornaments in her personal collection and another 18,000 displayed in her shop, the Christel Dauwe Collection.

“My personal wish is to have a Christmas museum, where ornaments and the idea of Christmas can be on permanent display,” she told The Associated Press. But until that day comes, her small shop uses every corner to display its vast inventory.

Its wares include birds of every feather, fruit arrangements, cars, angels, snowmen and other figurines, ranging from a few euros for a wood laser-cut Cathedral of Antwerp to more than 500 euros ($580) for a special ornament of Alexander the Great on horseback.

The store began 35 years ago as an antiques shop, selling a few ornaments on the side, but Dauwe wanted to try selling more.

On the suggestion of a Polish au pair, Dauwe and her husband traveled to Poland and found a factory that could produce exactly the ornaments she wanted. The only catch was that 200 pieces of each design had to be ordered at a time.

They returned home deflated.

“After second thoughts though, we decided to order 20 shapes of 200 each, and one day they arrived -- all 4,000 of them. We gave some away and the rest we put in the shop and, well … That’s the story from there,” she said.

The original Polish factory still supplies many of the shop’s ornaments, in addition to 32 other European companies.

“There is an ornament here for everyone. We’ve had people come in who say they have a new pet or even a new car and we try to match an ornament to them. In the end the goal is not to have some kind of posh tree decorated all with the same colors and Christmas balls. The goal of ornaments is to make you smile,″ she said.

Some ornaments are more personal. And one year there was an ornament of Christel herself, designed by her husband as a surprise.

She’s been asked to provide ornaments for weddings and other events as well.

As far as having Christmas all year round, Dauwe says she is never bored with it. Twice a year she goes around the shop and dusts each ornament individually. She has met people from all over the world, and entertains die-hard locals who stop into the store just for a morning chat.

“There are two ways to go with Christmas. It’s either the nostalgia of the past or the hope for the future,″ she said. ″Hope is what is the most important to me. It’s what keeps you going.”

Owner of the Christel Dauwe Collection ornaments shop, Christel Dauwe, shows an ornament of the Horse Bayard, a folkloric Belgian event, at her shop in Antwerp, Belgium, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Owner of the Christel Dauwe Collection ornaments shop, Christel Dauwe, takes a holiday ornament out of a display case at her shop in Antwerp, Belgium, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

A holiday ornament of a British phone cabin hangs on a shelf in the Christel Dauwe Collection ornaments shop in Antwerp, Belgium, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Holiday ornaments are seen through the window of the Christel Dauwe Collection ornaments shop in Antwerp, Belgium, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Owner of the Christel Dauwe Collection ornaments shop, Christel Dauwe, wraps boxes of holiday ornaments at her shop in Antwerp, Belgium, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Men in Nigeria lower buckets into the murky water of the Lagos Lagoon and bring up loads of sand, one by one. Going underwater for about 15 seconds at a time, dredgers haul up bucketloads bound for construction sites, reshaping the coastline of Africa’s largest city.

Filling a boat takes about three hours, which is worth about 12,000 naira ($8) to a middleman who supplies larger buyers.

Dredgers and local traders say the price of sand, crucial for making concrete, has risen steadily.

The changes to the lagoon are unmistakable. What was once an open stretch of water is increasingly broken up by sandy patches, narrowing channels, and reshaping currents that support thousands of fishermen.

—

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Residents on a boat on the Lagos Lagoon on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Aerial view of Makoko, one of Lagos' oldest fishing communities where dredging barges operate close to homes built on stilts on Saturday, Dec.13, 2025. Residents say the encroachment has destroyed fishing grounds and put many out of work. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Worker shovels up freshly extracted sharp sand from a dredging transporter in Ibeshe, Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Aerial view of heaps of sand and dredging equipment in the busy Ajah area of Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. Lagos is in constant construction. Roads, bridges and housing estates are rising daily on reclaimed waterfronts as the city's rich displace many of its poor. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

One of thousands of local dredgers diving for sand to support his household on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. He said he and his partner earn about 12,000 naira ($8) each per boatload, selling to a middleman who supplies larger buyers. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Sand extraction in progress on Lagos waters, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Fishermen in the lagoon in Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Worker shovels up freshly extracted sharp sand from dredging transporter in Ibeshe, Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Aerial view of heaps of sand and dredging equipment in the busy Ajah area of Lagos, Nigeria, on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)

Sand extraction in progress in Lagos waters, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Grace Ekpu)