WASHINGTON -- Time was, presidential campaigning during Christmas week would have been dismissed as wasted effort, worthy of political grinches when most people are in a holiday mood. Not now, with the first voting of the 2000 campaign coming less than a month after the presents are unwrapped.

The candidates, Republicans and Democrats, stayed at it in Iowa and New Hampshire with only a day or two off to get home for Christmas Eve. Some will be back on the road before New Year. The crowds at their rallies and forums were not down noticeably.

It may be Christmas, but the contestants aren't taking much of a holiday. And their parting exchanges are not of gifts.

''Does he want to debate on Christmas Day, too?'' said Democrat Bill Bradley, mocking Vice President Al Gore's constant demands for more campaign debates.

Not quite.

But there's not much time for political peace on those parts of the earth holding presidential caucuses and primaries early in 2000, Iowa in caucuses on Jan. 24, New Hampshire in the first primary on Feb. 1.

Nor was it a week of goodwill among these men, with both the Democratic and the Republican competition turning harsher than before. The mutually scornful ''Meet the Press'' debate Sunday between Vice President Al Gore and rival Bill Bradley set the tone.

Bradley elaborated in Iowa:

''They believe the politics of distortion and manipulating the truth is the way to succeed. That's the Washington way and I reject it.''

But the former New Jersey senator is no longer the amiable rival who once ventured only gentle rebuttals to Gore. The vice president said he wasn't going negative, just citing differences. ''When I point out these shortcomings, I think that's what democracy ought to be about,'' he said.

So, too, in the six-candidate Republican contest, with front-running Gov. George W. Bush telling The Boston Globe that after the holidays, he's going to start emphasizing his differences with Sen. John McCain, who has been coming on strong in New Hampshire. ''There's a feisty side of me that you haven't seen yet,'' said Bush.

''I know this is getting very intense,'' McCain said in South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary Feb. 19, before his holiday break. McCain said he won't go negative, and would be sad if Bush did.

McCain's campaign web page had a new headline: ''Frontrunner Meltdown?'' And a caricature of McCain as the sun, with a melting block of ice below, marked GWB.

Plus an Internet survey question: ''Do you think George W. Bush's falling poll numbers are causing him to break his 'positive campaign' pledge?''

Bush hasn't really said anything against McCain. But negative campaigning is a negative in the polls, so the candidate who can suggest that the other guy is doing it could benefit.

Steve Forbes, who has softened the attack ad tone he took in the 1996 campaign, put radio commercials on the air in Iowa and New Hampshire Tuesday that hardened his line against Bush, quoting conservative commentaries denouncing his tax cut proposal.

Bush already has been taking attack ad hits from interest groups, on such topics as his environmental record in Texas, and his refusal to pledge that he would appoint only abortion opponents as federal judges. A fringe candidate in New Hampshire has just gone after him personally in a TV ad claiming that Bush once used cocaine, which is unproved. Bush has never said he didn't use it.

Democrats Gore and Bradley, meanwhile, were arguing in Iowa about school and farm programs.

Gore said in Ames that Bradley doesn't understand agriculture policy and was ''antifamily farmer'' until he began campaigning for president. Bradley countered that the administration hasn't done enough about the stagnant farm economy. ''After seven years, the vice president has offered nothing more than negative attacks and distortions,'' he said.

The vice president also proposed a $50 billion plan for universal preschool education. ''I think it's important to have a bold plan and I don't think you can nibble around the edges,'' Gore said, echoing what Bradley has been saying about him.

As McCain said, it's getting intense.