December 24, 1982

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.