We did this 2 years ago on Christmas night. We waffled over canceling it so many times due to the cost and decided to keep the reservation. My kids were DD17 and DS14 at the time. We'll be at WDW again for Christmas this year and they asked last night if we could do it again. We all really enjoyed the buffet. The characters came around and we took a couple of pictures but it wasn't overkill on the time spent which for us was perfect. I suspect they can tell who wants a little more time and attention vs those that don't. We really liked the atmosphere and the food.