sirwillow, when you say crowds can be "enormous" can you give me any idea how bad enormous is? We once went to Disneyland the first week of January when schools were out and many of the lines were an hour (and it wasn't uncommon to get near the front of the line and they'd tell you the ride was down after wasting 45 minutes). Like that sort of enormous? The only time I've been to Silver Dollar City was a couple years ago in late August. We went on a Saturday and crowds were what I'd call "moderate". There were a lot of people there and we had to park quite far away in the lot, but line times were not prohibitive to ride anything.
We are not looking specifically to visit SDC so aren't looking for the very best time to visit or anything. It's that we'll be passing by it on the road on the Wed before Thanksgiving and the Saturday after so are wondering if it's worth trying to stop to see the Christmas festival or if the crowds would be too miserable.
Having worked at Disney- you caught a light to moderate crowd if you were there the first week of January, having missed the actual Christmas/ holiday crowds. So imagine that, but much much worse.
On Saturdays the crowds are often so think that you are shoulder to shoulder, front to back, solid with other people the entire time you are there. Think 45-60 minute lines for a snack. The train on Saturdays will often have an hour wait with running 2 trains- I've seen that line over the top of the corkscrew hill, all the way down it, and to the trestle crossing at the bottom near the saloon. And Thanksgiving weekend you can fully expect both the Friday and the Saturday to look like that. Honsetly, I wouldn't even bother attempting on the Saturday.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving while better is still going to be very busy and the crowds will be pretty heavy because of the number of people on vacation at that point. It's still likely to be fairly ugly, but at least a manageable ugly. But that whole weekend, as well as the week between Christmas and New Years are days to avoid if you can and try to go some other time.