It was a different kind of party for these three-year-old children of Harvard students. Twenty of them, representing Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths, gathered in the Harvard University Nursery School yesterday and kindled the seven branched menorah in joint observance of the age-old Hebrew festival of Chanukah.

Tomorrow the same inter-denominational group will meet again for another party--this time in celebration of Christmas.

Both festivities are parts of the work the quonset-housed nursery on Kirkland Place is doing to promote religious tolerance among the 90 pre-kindergarten children who come daily to play there. Directed by white-haired Miss Winnifred Lydon, the year-old school offers the youngsters of both veteran and non veteran students four daily hours of play for only $5 a month.

In the picture above, Mrs. Lois Paul of Cambridge is relating the Chanukah legend to her interested charges. PBH superintendent, "Jock" Cockburn will play Santa for the children Friday.