Does a MOSFET need current to operate without switching on and off fast

Firstly, I think you have your P ch and N ch mosfet symbols reversed. Secondly, no, you don't need to use a driver chip if the top mosfet is P channel (providing you are not making extensive use of PWM to control the motor).

If you are using PWM then I'd suggest you use push-pull drivers because the gate-source capacitance on MOSFETs is usually in the order of 1nF to 10nF and "charging" this amount of capacitance from a GPIO pin takes several micro-seconds. Worst still, the resistor that discharges the gate will take significantly longer if the resistor is in the middle kohm range.

So, if you are using PWM then I'd go the whole hog and use a driver AND use both N ch devices - efficiency will be a tad higher than using a P channel device as the top FET.

As an example use the following formula: -

\$\dfrac{dQ}{dT} = C\dfrac{dv}{dt}\$ = I (current injected into the gate capacitance)

So if capacitance is 3nF and you can inject 1 amp, the voltage rise on the gate is 333 volts per microsecond - you'd be looking for a rise time less than 1us to achieve maybe 10 volts and that sounds to me like a rise time or fall time of about 30 nano seconds.

If you were relying on a 1kohm resistor to discharge the gate, CR time is 3 microseconds and in reality you might need about 10 micro seconds to discharge it properly.

The option is yours.

Holding the P-channel MOSFET closed (gate at 5V) will use hardly any power. It is basically the same as holding an N-channel MOSFET gate at 0V.

(See http://www.vishay.com/docs/91076/91076.pdf for a p-channel version of the IRF530 - same gate-source leakage current of +-100nA max)

To prevent powering the LED array via CLK or DAT you will need to either drive them low or set them to high-impedence when the MOSFET is off. Since CLK and DAT are both outputs, simply driving low is fine.

Note: This does not apply to your circuit here, but for inputs you can use a tristate buffer like the 74LVC1T45 or similar to prevent powering via signal pins... See FTDI (FT232RL) powers itself through RX/TX lines for the solution I used.

Edit:

Alternative solution with existing parts

Actually, you could just move the N-channel MOSFET to the low side and drive CLK and DAT to 5V when you want to turn the LEDs off and go to sleep. That would address the problem in your first idea.