Cambridge today will lost at least 6000 members of its population as Harvard students flock home for holiday dinners and family gatherings. But the city's most renowned university will remain open for some during the Christmas break.

Harvard libraries and athletic facilities have shortened hours during Christmas break. Libraries will be open longer starting January 2.

For students with thesis deadlines and other pressing academic demands, Widener Library will open at 9 a.m. and close earlier than usual at 5 p.m. on weekdays from December 20 to January 2. Widener will close at 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

Hilles and Lamont libraries will open weekdays from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. from December 19 until the end of 1985. The two undergraduate libraries will be closed Saturdays and Sundays.

Both libraries will be open everyday until 1 a.m. from January 6 through January 22.

Cabot Science Library will be open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. December 21 through January 2. The library will be open everyday until midnight from January 3 through 24.

All four libraries will close at noon on December 24 and will not open Christmas day or New Year's day.

All Harvard undergraduate dining halls close today after lunch and will reopen for breakfast on January 3, the first day of reading period. The Freshman Union, Currier House and Eliot House will reopen for dinner on January 2.

Although most Harvard students will head home for break, some have opted to stay in Cambridge.

"For the next three weeks I'll be eating cereal packages and stolen apples and bananas," says Peter K. Hannam '87, a Lowell House resident from Australia who will stay at Harvard.

Hannam said he will spend time at the Indoor Athletic Building (IAB), which will be open 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on December 21 through 30. The IAB will close at 4:30 p.m. on December 24 and will be closed Christmas and New Year's days.

Blodgeu Pool will close December 21 and reopen January 2.