A mother's dilemma: Pay the bills or buy Christmas presents?

Angela Kearney's living room is filled with Christmas decorations. The lights on her tree illuminate her most prized ornaments. The room looks festive, but the mood is filled with dread.

Kearney has been furloughed from her job as a paralegal since March and her pandemic unemployment benefits run out in January, like they will for 12 million other Americans -- unless Congress extends them.
The mother of five, who still has three children living at home, currently receives $300 a week in unemployment benefits. Her husband recently applied for...