When are you going? As you get closer to Christmas, the Christmas parade actually can be seen in place of the regular parade. We were there the week before Christmas and managed to see it during the week. We were also able to watch The Night Before Christmas too and the Holiday Wishes fireworks.
We've done
MVMCP once and it was during the 1st week of December a few years back. I have mixed feelings about it. We loved the parade (I love a nighttime parade) and the fireworks are great and we loved the show at the Horseshoe....but it was PACKED. It was so packed, it was actually hard to move anywhere. We weren't able to actually ride anything that evening because of the crowds.
And the other perks? Our photograph was taken by somebody who should take lessons on how to take photographs. Half of my arm was missing from the photo...don't they learn how to frame photgraphs? <sigh>
I think eleanor is right...you should do it at least once...but if you go closer to Christmas, a lot of the extra perks are part of the regular schedule at MK.
If you do go, make yourself a reservation at one of the MK restaurants just at park closing so when the party starts, you're already in the heart of the park. We ate at Liberty Tree Tavern and when they let us leave the restaurant (they kept us in there until the start of the party), we were already close to where the cookies, hot chocolate and photographs were. LOL