If the lagging economy is having any effect on Middle Georgians’ Christmas shopping habits, it didn’t seem to have too much of an impact at the annual Christmas Made In The South festival this weekend.

About 300 craftsmen, selling food, art and clothing products among other things, were at the Macon Coliseum and Wilson Convention Center for the event.

Bob Hunt, the festival’s promoter, said he said the crowd this weekend was pretty consistent with last year’s attendance, likely about 18,000 during the three days.

“This year is real close to last year’s (figures),” he said. “It may be a four or five percent difference. There’s been no major decline based on the economy.”

Most of the shoppers came Friday or Saturday, some of the merchants said, with Sunday’s crowd smaller than expected.

“Friday was excellent and Saturday was very good,” said Walter Croll, a Florida merchant who sold hand-painted eggs decorated by his wife.

“Sunday has been a terrible day. It’s been really down.”

Croll, who said he has been a seller at the festival for the past five or six years, said that while the number of customers was about the same as previous years, the volume of sales was down.

“What’s missing is the large orders,” he said. “You had people buying eight, 10, 12 eggs. Now, they’re buying one or two. I’m sure we’re having as many sales, but the number is down.”

Tammy Tollison, of Laurens, S.C., who was selling trivets decorated by her friend artist Sheila Putnam said that many of the items that they were selling had a more general theme than the Christmas-theme products.

“People are being more practical,” Tollison said. “They want things that are more versatile, getting gifts they can use all year-round.”

Still, the majority of the customers seemed to have Christmas on their mind.

Tabitha Encinas, of Macon, said she comes to the festival every year to do her Christmas shopping.

“It’s a tradition,” she said. “They’ve always got good bread. It’s just a unique bunch of gifts — you find more unique things. ... I like it all.”

Donna Brown of Forsyth said this is the first time she has attended the festival. Her sister-in-law told her about it.

Not only did Brown plan to shop Sunday, but she also wanted to get an idea of what it would be like to have a booth there. A wildlife photographer, she is considering selling her wares next year.

“This is really neat,” she said. “I’m getting ideas about putting my wildlife photos out there. I wasn’t looking for anything here in particular, but wanted to see what it’s like. Some of the stuff is reasonable, some of it seems high, but it’s all beautiful stuff.”

To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334.