Holiday Craft Fairs... Has the economy hurt everyone's sales?

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My early November shows weren't very strong. Even when their was a good turnout, it seemed like people were only browsing and many people left the shows empty-handed. The economy wasn't doing very well at that time, and the stock market was down triple-digit points almost every day. The shows I did later in November, seemed to be a little better, even though the market was sit up and down. I guess people have come to realize that the market is shaky, hopefully they got out on the stocks that were awful and realized they still needed to do some holiday shopping. Many people I know, including myself, will be tightening our belts when it comes to spending, but I've noticed a trend towards people buying handmade items in this tough economy... which is a very good thing for us handmade crafters! I did my 1st show for the month of December last evening. It was a small school show, one that is geared towards school-age children having the opportunity to buy items for family members, teachers, bus & school aides, etc. The show was well-supported with about 3 times the amount of crafters than last year and a very steady flow of customers from the surrounding communities. The crafters in the area where I was set-up seemed to do fairly well, however, some newer vendors were situated in the hallways and it seemed they didn't fare as well. I did very well selling my scarves, thanks to the cold weather and I brought home less than half of my inventory. My jewelry-type items that were geared towards the children's budgets also did pretty good. I did sell a couple of sea glass pieces, but I noticed that many people, despite commenting on "what a great price for sea glass", didn't make the purchase and for the first time... my cobalt sea glass creations weren't purchased. I have never brought home a cobalt sea glass piece and last night I brought home 2 sets of earrings and 1 bracelet (and I really marked them well below my online shop prices) Many people checked them out and a couple grabbed my business card, but no one pulled the trigger on a purchase. Overall, I can't complain at all about how my last few shows have turned out. Just when you think the economy has really hurt handmade crafters, the shows have been better than expected. Not quite as good as last year, but really not all that bad. Has anyone been doing craft shows recently? How was the show's traffic & how did you fare?