For Chris Valdez, a waiter at Farmer Boys in Hanford, this Christmas will be unlike any other. Valdez, who supports a 15-month-old son, plans to forgo buying his only child a Christmas present. Instead, he will do the most basic thing of all: play with him.

Like many others in Kings County, this Christmas will be financially tight for Valdez. The Lemoore resident has seen his friends lose jobs left and right to a plundering economy. He knows people at Hanford's IHOP who were fired. Even at his own restaurant, which just opened last year, staff has been reduced to half its number months ago, he says.

"Everywhere labor is kept really low," said Valdez, 18. "If you're not the best, you're not going to have a job. But the reality is many people are not the best of the best."

As a result, Valdez is worried he might not have a job one or two years down the road. He doesn't know if his own restaurant will stay afloat amid a deepening recession. He says Farmer Boys is doing OK now because it's new. But once the excitement wears off, he said, people might not come anymore, leaving his bosses to further reduce staff.

"Now I'm seeing everybody -- my friends -- go broke," Valdez said. "When I was growing up, I heard about companies that were financial titans -- Mervyn's, General Motors Corp., Chrysler and all the banks. Now they're in financial stress."

He fears the worst may happen, so he wants to save money in case something bad happens. Now he asks his friends to fix his 1997 Mustang. Before, he'd take it to a shop.

Valdez isn't the only one curtailing his spending this holiday season. Many others nationwide have cut back sharply. According to an Associated Press-GfK poll released last week, 53 percent say they expect to spend less on holiday gifts than they did last year. An additional 40 percent say they will spend about the same.

The result is that some of the biggest names in corporate America plan to shutter their doors for good, drained by lackluster sales fueled by rising unemployment and tightening credit.

Mervyn's is one of those companies, and some Kings County residents will be hit hard after the stores close later this month.

Hanford-resident Anthony Valdez, 28, store manager of Mervyn's in Tulare, is one of those who will be affected. He said he doesn't plan to buy gifts for friends.

"I'm only buying things for immediate relatives," he said.

Valdez said he'll look for another job, but is unsure how secure it will be even if he lands a new one.

"Nothing is safe today," he said. "I know people working at Mervyn's for more than 30 years -- longer than I've been alive -- and now they will not have a job."

His wife will be the breadwinner once his regular paychecks are no more. Tired of working holidays, weekends and evenings, he said he wants to spend more time with family and will look for a job in finance, the sector in which his wife works.

Buying fewer presents isn't the only tactic Valdez is employing this Christmas to save money. He cuts entertainment and extras like golfing and going out to eat; for example, he hasn't been to Red Lobster in a year. He used to purchase movies at the store. Now he rents them.

Others in Kings County make so little money that they wouldn't have spent much for Christmas even if the economy was sizzling. Indeed, the median annual pay for all workers in Kings County is $28,014, according to the 2007 census. That's barely enough to cover rent on a one-bedroom apartment in Hanford, car and food, as well as gas, medical and utilities costs.

Vanessa Rodriguez, an in-home care provider from Hanford, barely makes ends meet. She makes $9.50 an hour while raising two daughters -- one is 5, the other 3 -- by herself. She pays $675 a month in rent and $300 a month for payments on a 2003 Dodge Neon. After bills and other expenses, she only has $20 left in the bank.

As a result, Rodriguez, 26, can't afford to shop in stores this holiday season.

"I'm not spending anything -- nothing for relatives and friends -- this Christmas," she said. "It's depressing but I can't let it get me down."

Instead, she will look to a higher power as her Christmas present.

"God will help me survive," she said. "That's all I need."

The holidays won't be flush with name-brand gifts for many families. The recession has swept many away from steady well-paying work, plunging them closer to working-poor status. They've been forced to toil in lower-paying jobs, artificially deflating the national unemployment rate, according to published news reports.

Vanessa Romero's husband is a case in point. He has been working on and off in temporary jobs as an electrician since the real estate industry imploded last year. Before he was raking in $18 an hour full-time. Now, he's lucky to pull off $12 an hour on a temporary basis.

"He has to go where there's the job," Romero, 23, of Hanford said in an interview at the Hanford Mall. "We don't know if there's going to be work in the future."

The result is she was forced a few months ago to work as a substitute aide for Hanford public schools to supplement her husband's income.

Romero's job pulls in $12.98 an hour, but still isn't enough to compare with their income from previous years. The result is she and her husband, who raise two girls -- one 3, the other 10 months old -- strive to buy less expensive, but more meaningful gifts.

"Before, I'd buy what just came out and name-brand items," Romero said. "Now, I think about what people like and what is important in their lives."

For example, last year, Romero bought her daughters toys. But with already enough toys this year, the daughters are getting only one plaything each along with comforters and pillows.

"We buy what they need," Romero said.

As the recession deepens, there's a chance that she and her husband might not be able to pay their bills. But Romero said, "God will always take care of us. By miracles, we've always paid rent. I know God is not going to leave us stranded."

But they were almost stranded once. The dealer snatched their 2008 Toyota Camry when money got tight. Now they share rides in their aging Hyundai. And the utility company shut off the electricity in their rented house when her husband was out of work.

Still, Romero said about this holiday season: "I still have my family. I appreciate my husband and children and that they are still alive. What more can I ask for? ... The real meaning of Christmas isn't about gifts."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2423.

(Dec. 16, 2008)