Danita McAlpin was pushing her new granddaughter, Emma Lee Cooler, through Salisbury Mall Friday when a woman selling resin figurines handed her an angel ornament.

“She said, ‘Put this on the tree for her,’ ” McAlpin said. “She was so sweet. It really made my day.”

The baby was just so beautiful, said Debra Lambeth of Rockwell, who gave her the angel. “She looked like a little doll,” she said, “a beautiful little doll.”

Emma slept through the whole thing. A premature baby, she weighed 3 pounds, 10 ounces at birth and weighs only 10 pounds now.

“She’s a miracle,” Lambeth said.

“Precious,” another woman commented as she passed by her. “She’s so cute,” a man with her said.

Emma, who slept with her head held back, didn’t wake up despite the busy shoppers who slowed down to admire her. When something startled her, she reached up with her arms but continued to sleep, holding them outstretched in the air.

Friday was McAlpin’s first outing with Emma, her very first grandchild, without her mother, Amber Cooler. She slept in the stroller with the angel ornament by her side, a small brown teddy bear by her head and a stuffed snowman at her feet.

“She’s our treasured blessing of 1999,” said Connie Lyerly, who arrived at the mall to eat lunch with her sister, McAlpin, and her new great-niece. “She looks like one of those porcelain dolls.”

“How old is that baby?” another woman stopped to ask.

McAlpin told her the story of her premature birth as Emma slept.

“Everything,” McAlpin answered when asked what she had bought Emma for Christmas. She was still looking for a Fisher-Price aquarium to go on the side of her crib.

Emma Lee Cooler wasn’t the only one attracting attention at the mall Friday. Shoppers stopped to look at crafts for sale by members of Rowan Crafts Inc. as they went in and out of stores.

It was the first craft fair for Dennis Wilson of Salisbury, who has only been making the wooden reindeer he was selling since October.

“My brother does crafts out in Oklahoma,” he said, “and he brought one home to my father last year. I thought I’d give it a go.”

Wilson, who also sells his reindeer at Rufty’s Garden Shop, Greendale Nursery and Godley’s Garden Center and Nursery, had already sold two by noon Friday.

His father, Gene Wilson, had helped him to transport the deer, available in two different sizes with clear-and-multi-colored lights wrapped around their terrace log bodies and dogwood branch antlers.

“I think they’re precious,” said Rachel Buchanan of Salisbury, who had come to the mall to use her 20-percent-off coupon at Belk.

“They had exactly what I wanted,” she said of the sale. “I didn’t realize the crafts were out here. I love crafts, and I’ve got to go in that new store next.”

Buchanan was referring to A Pleasant Nook, which had its grand opening on Nov. 14.

“I love Christmas,” she said. The Buchanans have seven grandchildren, and her mother and her husband’s mother are both in their 80s. “We have a big family, so it’s a lot of fun at our home.”

There are also a lot of activities going on at the First United Methodist Church, where the Buchanans attend. “And don’t forget the people who need help,” she said, “the homeless and the little children.”

Tricia Hardy of Mad Ceramics in Mocksville, treasurer of Rowan Crafts for the last five years, had bought a reindeer decorated in blue lights from Wilson.

“It’s slow so far,” she said of her ceramics display. “But I sold two pieces this morning before we even set up.”

Business had picked up, she said about an hour later.

Hardy’s handpainted tiles, birds and ceramic boxes with interchangeable seasonal lids were among the items selling.

Diane Benfield of Mocksville, also a member of Rowan Crafts, said her cloth hot and cold packs were selling well. “They’re like heating pads,” she said.

Priscilla Nichols of Mocksville, who was shopping with her daughter, Dena Allison, and her 3-year-old granddaughter, Amanda Allison, said she was pleased to see some new stores in the mall.

“You want to see my bear?” Nichols asked, pulling the lanky brown bear dressed in a blue velvet outfit out of her bag.

A present for Amanda?

“This bear is for me,” she responded.

Nichols was almost done with her shopping. “We started way back in the summer,” she said.

When asked a question about Christmas, Amanda ran and got in the stroller her mother was pushing and pulled the shade down over her head.

Nearby, Fred Cline was sitting on the brick wall of a planter waiting for his wife, Martha, to check out of Dollar Tree.

“I’m one of those last-minute shoppers,” he said. He might get it done earlier, Cline said, if he could decide what to buy.

Maggie Musselwhite said she has been so busy making items for the craft fair and her regular booth at the Webb Road Flea Market that she hadn’t even started her shopping.

“I give a lot of my crafts as gifts,” she said.

There was a line in KB Toys, where one shopper waited to pay for a Toy Story character and another for a stuffed Taco Bell chihuahua.

Michael and Laura Cartner of Salisbury were in the store with two of their three children, Ashley, 3, and Christopher, 4.

“I hate it,” Michael Cartner said when asked about Christmas shopping. “Christmas shopping is God’s revenge for making a mockery out of the birthday of his son.”

Laura Cartner said they enjoyed buying gifts for their children. “But we hate dealing with the stores,” she said.

“Rude sales people, the whole schmear,” her husband chimed in.

Other shoppers at the mall Friday seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Desiree Johnson of Salisbury rushed in on her lunch hour to look for a gift for her husband, Anthony. “He’s the last one I’m shopping for,” she said.

The Johnsons have been married five years and have one child, a 20-month-old daughter named Jessica.

“A bunch of toys,” Desiree Johnson said when asked what they had bought her. Her favorite is a walking, wagging Pluto. “It’s a Disney character. He’s got a little leash, and he walks around.”

Martha Romans of Hickory Farms, which opened the first week in November, said the cheese balls were the store’s hottest sellers.

The most popular flavor varies depending on what the sample is on that particular day, she said, because most people buy the flavor they sample.

The samples for Friday were the Tangy Ranch cheese ball, the beef stick summer sausage, the turkey summer sausage, crackers, sweet-hot mustard, horseradish and gourmet cranberry mustard.

Carol Ames of Salisbury, who was working in The Peanut Shack, said she had been busy so far this shopping season.

“We do a lot of business for the people shopping and for gifts, too,” she said. “When you get busy shopping, you get hungry. It’s a good reason to sit down and have a break, too.”

It’s fun working this time of year, Ames said, because of all the activity. “The children are fun to watch,” she said.

The Peanut Shack is located right across from Santa, who wasn’t due to arrive until 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Children passing by the display of snowmen elves, reindeer, candy canes and Christmas presents looked everywhere for Santa as they walked by, but his seat was empty.

Children will be able to eat breakfast with Santa on the 11th if they sign up in time, according to Gail Stokes, marketing director for Salisbury Mall. Scheduled for 9 a.m. in the mall conference room, the breakfast costs $8.50 and includes a photograph with Santa and a special gift.

Call 637-7467 for reservations as soon as possible as the breakfast is limited to the first 25 children who register.

Also scheduled for the mall are performances by the West Rowan Middle School chorus on Wednesday the 8th at 10 a.m., the Knox Middle School band on the afternoon of the14th and Debbie Leazer’s dance group on the 16th at 6:30 p.m.

Any other groups interested in performing are asked to call Stokes. “We’ll set up a time so it doesn’t conflict with somebody else,” she said.“We usually have a pretty good turnout.”

So far, the shopping season has been busy, according to Stokes. “We had a couple of slow days, but most of the time, we have a lot of traffic out here,” she said. “That’s a good sign.”

The General Nutrition Center had a display sure to attract weary shoppers on their way out of the mall. A Twinkle Toes foot massager with magnetic therapy was set up ready to use.