Knott’s Crafty Act to Boost Revenues : Theme parks: Ghost Town’s conversion to handicrafts festival is a moneymaker during a traditional lull in attendance.

Close your eyes, feel the wintry chill against your face and listen for the whistle of a steam train or an occasional jangle of a passing sleigh bell. Yes, Virginia, it does seem a little like Christmas in the Old West.

At the very least, the Christmas Crafts Festival at Knott’s Berry Farm could come as a welcome relief to shoppers weary of the enclosed, banal atmosphere of most shopping malls and their predictable gift offerings.

So for the fifth consecutive year, Knott’s has turned its famed Ghost Town into a haven for artisans and craft workers in a bid to beckon holiday shoppers who might be looking for something a little out of the ordinary.

The festival is separated from the main amusement park, festooned with Christmas decorations and costumed workers. Entry costs adults $2 (children get in free), a fraction of the $21 adult admission normally charged to see the Ghost Town and the rest of the theme park.

But what Knott’s might sacrifice in ticket sales, it hopes to recoup in craft sales commissions. The park takes a percentage of the artisans’ sales; the artisans get a crack at selling to cash-laden tourists in one of the nation’s most popular theme parks.

“It’s a way to better utilize our park during a traditional slow period and to offer something unique that no other park can match,” said Knott’s spokesman Bob Deuel. “It’s a distinctly unique experience from what the rest of the park offers.”

The big hits this season are $4 and $6 cinnamon-scented whisk brooms, coin jewelry and hand-painted silk scarves. Santa Claus holes up in a hastily converted dance hall and carolers have been known to stroll the streets.

Deuel said attendance was strong during the Thanksgiving weekend, but just how strong he wouldn’t say. Knott’s generally does not release its attendance figures. Though sales in the festival village exceeded last year’s figures for the four-day weekend, some artisans claimed more success than others.

Georgia Olah of Yorba Linda reported “a nice crowd and a lot of sales” for her jewelry while across the way, Eva Steele of Pomona said sales were simply “OK” for the debut of her dolls made from the heads of mops.

Some, including Steele, are new at the handicraft sales game. Steele said she had visited the Knott’s fair in the past with her two children and this year decided to try making and selling the dolls.

Others, such as Susie Sutton of Irvine, are veterans of handicraft festivals around the state. She makes dolls and her husband writes and illustrates his own line of children’s books.

“This is our first time. It’s really a different atmosphere,” she said.

Artisans are still adjusting to find the sales formula that works best. Wally Peterson, who assists visitors in creating their own clay pots for $5 or more, made a breakthrough of sorts Monday when he moved his potter’s wheel to a main promenade where it will attract attention, instead of stuck behind a partition.

Peterson, a Eugene, Ore., educator and inventor who just finished a teaching stint in Czechoslovakia, hopes to have as many as 300 people a day create their own pots under his direction. The pots are then fired, glazed and mailed to their creators.

“They’re looking for an experience,” he said. “They want to have fun. I don’t have to persuade them at all.”

Peterson said he would like to increase his income by selling videotapes of people as they create their clay pots on the wheel. But such technology is not allowed as Knott’s strives to maintain its Old West theme.

“We’re trying to recreate an early Christmas village,” said Patsy Clark, general services merchandising manager.

As such, the artisans have to stay within the theme and have to demonstrate the making of their handicrafts in the booths. Clark said she starts interviewing artisans as early as July, taking care not to duplicate products or trades.

“We’ve established a reputation,” she said. “People wait for us to open.”