We were there this year, 2016. We've gone that week in the past, plus we've done early December and the week before Christmas (got home 12/23). This past year was crazy busy, much more than we've seen in the past.
First and foremost, don't expect to ride things multiple times. Be satisfied with getting to ride everything once, and you won't be disappointed.
Get your FPs when as soon as they're available for 7 Dwarves Mine Train, Space and Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan, Frozen Ever After Ride, Soarin', It's going to be busy, make sure you check Times Guides and schedules so you don't miss something that you really want to see, like shows, street entertainment, etc.
Think about eating in advance, even if it's just QS. Look at menus, do you know what you like or don't like to eat, then plan your day to be near the restaurant you want at meal times. We did things like planning a Peter Pan and Haunted Mansion fastpass with time for lunch at Columbia Harbor House in between. Don't just decide you're hungry and see what's close - you may be stuck with eating something you really don't care for.
For Thanksgiving dinner, there are a TON of restaurants that add turkey and trimmings to their menu. All the food courts will have turkey, most restaurants will add a turkey platter and all the buffets will also add it in there. This year, we had brunch at Captain's Grill which was awesome. They had great breakfast and lunch stuff, plus hand carved turkey and ham, omelette station, amazing desserts. It would be our number one choice for Thanksgiving.
Since we had free dining, we also went to Boma for a later dinner on Thanksgiving. They added a turkey carving station as well.
I don't think this has changed, if you have friends who have gone and have magic bands or RFI enabled tickets, you can also get day of fastpasses on those. We had some old tickets of ours that were not added into
MDE, so we could get 3 additional FPs once we got into the park. We used those for meet and greets and "lesser" rides. My son also gets a
DAS, so we could use that for one or two rides per day. We barely used that though, because we could do the second set of FPs.
USE THE LATE NIGHT EMH! The majority of people leave the parks after the fireworks at MK. That usually gives you 2 or 3 hours of park time when you can practically walk on things. Literally go from one to the other with no wait - get off, get in line, repeat. We used that time for Dumbo, Goofy Coaster, Ariel, Teacups, Winnie the Pooh - everything. It may very well be cold, so make sure you have hats, gloves, scarves and extra coat/clothes to keep you warm. Same for Epcot, you can walk on everything in Future World except for TT and Soarin', but those usually have less wait times. Not much to do in World Showcase during EMH, I'd say stay in Future World.
If you get there when there's a Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom, don't plan to go to Disney Springs that night. Everyone else does. It gets crazy busy on those nights.
The surprising thing this year was how many foreign families were there, from all over the world. I wish their travel agents would have told them that it was a major US holiday week and to wait one week and get there when it's empty! There were literally half hour waits for the Fastpass kiosks, and all Fastpasses were usually gone by noon or earlier. I felt bad for all those people who bought their tickets at the gate and tried to get on some rides, they spent the majority of their time waiting.
It also felt like there was less Christmas this year, don't know if it was real or perceived because there were people in the way lol.
We didn't hate it this time, but we don't think we'll go back unless it's the only possibility. We're thinking we would try Christmas some day, or wait until my DD is in college, then we can go whenever because she won't be with us.
