Like so many small winged fowl, the vast majority of Harvard students will go home to roost this Thanksgiving, leaving behind a campus full of empty dorm rooms and desolate dining halls.

And while the 500 or so undergraduates who will be sticking around for the holiday can console themselves with the thought of a Harvard-style Thanksgiving Day dinner at Mather House, many students say that won't compare to the festive atmosphere of home.

"Being alone with maybe only 10 people in the whole house is pretty depressing," said Elbert S. Huang '92, who stayed at the University last Thanksgiving and will do so again this this weekend.

Huang said his agenda for the upcoming weekend mainly involves "working and eating a lot." But not everyone who stays at Harvard goes through Thanksgiving in the doldrums, he said. Last year, Huang said that he visited two of the first-years in his prefect group expecting to find them in a funk.

Instead, he said, "I found them frolicking together in the snow. They were having a great time."

Mihui Pak '94 said she has no great expectations of merriment this weekend. Although she said she wants to see her family, the cost of travel to her California home makes a return trip impossible.

Pak said she turned down offers to stay with friends because "I feel like I might be uncomfortable if I went home with people, and I might be really homesick."

Atypical Pastimes

Throughout the campus, these Cambridge-bound students are planning alternative weekends, turning to community service, money-making opportunities and other atypical holiday pastimes to pass the time over the next few days. Others will take advantage of the unusual calm to catch up on work and sleep.

A few have opted instead to share their stuffing with a roommate or friend, avoiding the unwieldy transportation arrangements which would see them home.

Such a one is Declan T. Fox '94, a native of Ireland who plans to spend his first Thanksgiving eating, drinking and making merry at his roommate's Boston home. "I feel a little uncomfortable with it," Fox admitted. "But it's either that or the Union."

Adding to Fox's holiday angst are nagging uncertainties about the underlying concept of the upcoming holiday. "I just don't understand this Thanksgiving," Fox said. In Ireland, he explained, "we drink twice as much and eat twice as much turkey at Christmas."

Fox is one of a number of students whose background puts a different slant on what is essentially a national holiday. "This is just like a long weekend for me," said Shugoo Imam '94 of Pakistan, professing an immunity to teary-eyed holiday sentiment.

Imam, who attended an American school in her native country, said the prospect of a solitary holiday in the Yard doesn't depress her, as the distance of her home makes a visit unrealistic. "That kind of thing is to be expected when you come from so far away," she said.

Beatriz E. Quezada '93, whose parents came to the U.S. from Mexico, said that she won't be missing Thanksgiving dinner entirely. On the other hand, she said, she won't be having the same kind of holiday repast that most students envision when they think of Thanksgiving.