What was going on when I was born?

While it has been a confusing year in much of the savings industry, with a dizzying array of new accounts bombarding savers, one thrift tradition, Christmas Clubs, has survived healthier than ever. And the Christmas Club, a company that offers shrewd and sentimental choices of premiums for the clubs - things like stuffed toy bears, Currier and Ives trays, tree ornaments and pie-baking dishes - says it is having the best year in its 72-year history. The results have been achieved despite lingering recession and the fact that financial institutions generally pay only a modest 5 1/4 percent on the programs. Promotional Materials The Easton, Pa., company, which is privately held, provides promotional and other materials to financial institutions that want to offer Christmas Club programs to their customers, many of whom like the compulsory-savings aspect.

Masked gunmen firing pistols burst into a crowded Chinatown bar and reputed gang hangout early yesterday and killed three people, including a 13-year-old boy. Eight others were wounded, two of them critically. Witnesses at the bar - the Golden Star at 51 East Broadway - compared the scene to a battleground, with screaming victims and paramedics and with the dead and wounded sprawled inside and on the sidewalk. Inspector Joseph DeMartino of the Manhattan Detective Command said several of the victims belonged to gangs that have clashed over the lucrative protection racket in Chinatown. He called it the worst outbreak of Chinatown gang violence in recent years.

After years of negotiation, a final division of the four boroughs outside Manhattan among six cable television companies was approved yesterday by the Board of Estimate. Officials said service could be brought into some homes as early as June. ''In Staten Island,'' said Morris Tarshis, director of franchises, ''it could come like that'' and he snapped his fingers. In some neighborhoods, he said, full service could take years.

The Senate approved a 5-cent-a-gallon increase in the gasoline tax today to finance highway repairs and mass transit, after breaking a filibuster by two conservative Republicans. After the rush down to the wire, the Senate adjourned for the Christmas holidays, bringing the 97th Congress to an end. The bill passed, 54 to 33, after the Senate cut off debate in a lopsided 81-to-5 cloture vote reflecting exasperation and resentment toward the filibustering conservatives, who had held up action for two weeks. Has Reagan's Support The House passed the bill Tuesday, and it now goes to President Reagan. He had given the measure his reluctant endorsement at the behest of Congressional leaders from both parties.

El Paso directors rejected Burlington Northern's $24-a-share takeover offer. Page D3. By THOMAS J. LUECK In the two years since an ill-fated liquefied natural gas deal with Algeria cost the El Paso Company $375 million, it has made substantial efforts to redirect itself toward domestic exploration and production. But El Paso, confronted with a growing worldwide surplus of natural gas and a deep recession, has had continuing problems. Thus, if Burlington Northern Inc. is successful in its bid for control of the Houston-based company, it will inherit a diversified mix of promising and deeply troubled businesses.

Steven J. Ross, chairman of Warner Communications Inc., said yesterday that two top officers of Warner's Atari Inc. unit had sold Warner stock just before Warner's announcement on Dec. 8 that its earnings this year would be only 10 percent to 15 percent above last year's figure. The earnings announcement caused the stock to plunge in price. Mr. Ross said Raymond E. Kassar, chairman of Atari, had informed him that he had sold 5,000 Warner shares on Dec. 8, the day of the earnings announcement, and that Dennis D. Groth, executive vice president of Atari, had sold 6,376 shares on Dec.1.

A portion of a tax surcharge on corporations designed to subsidize mass transit fares will be passed along to utility customers and cost them up to $80 million a year, the New York State Public Service Commission said yesterday. In debates in the State Legislature that preceded the passage of the surcharge measure Wednesday night, the surcharge was described as a tax on businesses that profit from a stable transportation system. The tax is intended to prevent bus, subway and commuter rail fares from rising over the next 12 months. It was imposed on profits of banks, insurance companies, utilities and other corporations in the 12 counties served by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

CHRISTMAS DAY is traditionally a time to spend with friends or family. But it is on such a holiday, when the streets are empty, their hubbub stilled, that the city extends a special kind of hospitality. ''Yes, come inside,'' it seems to say, like some unhurried hostess. But life doesn't come to a halt in New York, even on Christmas. And for those who wish to study this other face, the city offers a variety of prospects. One could, for instance, spend an entire day on Fifth Avenue and its side streets, guided by a tape tour that is now available. Such a day might start at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue and 53d Street, a stop on the tour and one of the city's prettiest churches. St. Thomas is also known for its music. At 10:30 tonight, for instance, the church's Christmas will begin with a mass by Marc Antoine Charpentier, performed by the 40 boy sopranos of St. Thomas's famous choir school, 12 adult altos, tenors and basses, and an orchestra. An 11 A.M. service on Christmas Day will include the singing of traditional carols and a mass by George Malcolm, the 20th-century harpsichordist and conductor who served as master of music at Westminster Cathedral.

Sometime before next summer, motorists on crowded city streets that lead to major highways are likely to see a startling new sight: 75-foot double trailer trucks competing for space on the road. Already a common sight on lonely highways through California, Nevada and other Western states, the biggest commercial trucks would be allowed to rumble into more congested places under legislation approved by Congress today and last weekend. The legislation outlines the first set of uniform standards for truck weights and lengths. Currently, each state sets a standard. Existing rules in many states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, will be liberalized by the new Federal laws, and if the states refuse to go along with the changes, they risk losing Federal aid by order of the Secretary of Transportation.

President Reagan and King Hussein of Jordan held their second and final meeting of the week today, and afterward Mr. Reagan voiced optimism that negotiations aimed at achieving a Middle East peace settlement were ''within our reach.'' Although United States officials seemed buoyed by the Jordanian leader's visit, it was clear from the King's remarks that he had not yet accepted American appeals that he enter Israeli-Egyptian negotiations on Palestinian self-rule. The King said he was returning to Jordan for further talks with ''our brethren'' and would be in touch with American officials ''before too long.'' 'Significant Progress' The President, standing beside the King at farewell ceremonies on the South Lawn of the White House, said: ''We've made significant progress toward peace. We have initiated a dialogue from which we should not consider turning back.''

An extension to restructure the bankruptcy courts was denied Congress by the Supreme Court. The decision cast substantial doubt on the ability of the Federal court system to handle corporate and personal bankruptcies in the foreseeable future. At issue is the jurisdictional status of the bankruptcy judges. (Page A1.) The Senate gave final approval to a 5-cent-a-gallon increase in the gasoline tax to finance highway repairs and mass transit, after breaking a filibuster by two conservative Republicans. (A1.) Highway experts argued that the bigger trucks allowed under the legislation would require costly added road maintainance and cause safety problems. (A1.) Oil industry analysts believe that the tax rise will go virtually unnoticed by motorists because it will be offset by a further drop in oil prices and strong competition. (B4.).

AS surely as the enthronement of Santa Claus in department-store toy sections, as surely as the enshrinement of the great tree above the skating rink at Rockefeller Center, Christmas - like other holidays - brings to the movie screens that category of film known as children's entertainment. For evidence, look no farther than tomorrow, Christmas Day, when ''Peter Pan,'' taking wing from the Walt Disney vaults for the first time in some seven years, opens at the Rivoli Twin, Coliseum 1, Olympia Quad and nearly 50 other theaters in the metropolitan area. Clearly, the timing of the latest advent of this 1953 animated version of the J.M. Barrie whimsy bears some relation to the fact that children have been set loose from their schools until after New Year's. And it seems no accident that other, similar films have been blossoming here and there on local screens since Thanksgiving. Yet these movies, directed mainly toward children, are reviewed by adults. With thousands of children about to be taken or sent to this season's children's entertainment, the need for them to have reliable information, the kind that only other children could supply, seemed compelling.