Oooh lucky lucky you! Hope you have a wonderful time!
As far as the Christmas lights go, I'm not sure when they start taking down the decor - I've never been this time of year. I would imagine since it will be the second week of January, though, that most if not all of them will be down by then. Check over on the TPAS board - if you do a search there, you should be able to find lots of threads.