We participated a couple of years ago. It was fun and learned quite a bit. You will surely get more comfortable operating your boat in the dark! Be prepared for cold, wet weather. We have a hydronic heating system so the cabin was toasty for us. If you participate, some of the local marinas will give you a discount on fuel. You can also get free slip space for December to make it easy to join up with the group (there was one group for the Willamette and another for the Columbia).
We were a bit disappointed in the light show we put together and came to understand why the boats that stole the show had so many strings of lights following the same patterns: you need to be very bright for the shapes to show over the distance that most people view from.
