Meet Cerridwen Baelfyre
Every world needs a heart. In Amberlight Valley, that heart belongs to Cerridwen "Cerri" Baelfyre.
If you've met Brigid first — the curious, warm-hearted girl at the center of the trilogy — I want to introduce you to her mother now, because Cerri is the one who taught me, long before I ever put her on the page, that healing doesn't have to look loud to be real.
Paige Freeman Hoover bringing Cerridwen Baelfyre to life on the big screen in The Christmas Witch Movie.
Who She Is
Cerri's full name is Cerridwen Urania Bellwick Baelfyre, named after the Celtic Triple Goddess Cerridwen — a name that carries weight before she ever says a word. She has copper-red hair that catches sunlight like it was made for it, a round freckled face, and an introverted energy that reads as quiet rather than closed off. She grew up in Scotland, married Duncan young, and moved her whole life, and eventually her daughter's, to Amberlight Valley to keep a promise she made to him.
That promise is the reason the whole trilogy exists. Grief moved her across an ocean. Love is what she built once she got there.
Her Magick
Cerri's magick is heart-centered, elemental, and celestial. She's the Christmas Witch — a lineage passed down through Befana, through the founding witch Cerridwen before her — but long before she knew any of that, the town already had a nickname for her: the Miss Fix-It of Amberlight Valley.
That's not a coincidence. That's just who Cerri is, magic or not. She runs the Apothecary, stocked with loose-leaf teas, crystals, oils, and candles. She makes magickal wreaths in Befana's old greenhouse. Her gift was never really about spellcraft — it was about tending. The magic just gave her tools to do what she was already built to do.
Edwin Modlin II and Paige Freeman Hoover as Duncan and Cerridwen Baelfyre.
Her Arc
Cerri's story is the quiet counter-melody running under her daughter's louder, more visible one. Without giving too much away, I'll say this: across the trilogy, she reawakens a magic she didn't know she was carrying, steps fully into the Christmas Witch lineage, and slowly, book by book, rebuilds a life she thought grief had permanently reshaped. There's healing in her arc — for herself and for the people around her — and there's a love story too, one that arrives quietly and without fanfare.
She also goes to therapy. Every single book. Alongside Brigid. I wanted that detail in the story because healing that's witnessed — and normalized — is part of the magic too.
If you want the full unfolding, you'll have to read it. I promise it's worth the wait.
Why She Matters to Me
I didn't set out to write a mother who was perfect. I set out to write one who was present — imperfectly, tiredly, devotedly present, doing the quiet work of rebuilding a life after loss while also raising a daughter through her own becoming.
Cerri is what it looks like to keep tending a garden even when you're not sure anything will grow. She's proof that restoration doesn't have to be dramatic to be real. Sometimes it's a cup of tea. Sometimes it's a wreath made by hand. Sometimes it's just showing up to the appointment, week after week, and doing the work.
If Brigid is Amberlight Valley's wonder, Cerri is its root system — steady, unseen, and holding the whole thing up.
Paige Freeman Hoover bringing Cerridwen Baelfyre to life on the big screen in The Christmas Witch Movie.
The Woman Who Brings Her to Life
When it came time to cast Cerri for the film, I knew I was looking for someone who could hold all of that at once — the grief, the steadiness, the quiet magic of a woman who tends things back to life. I found her in Paige Freeman Hoover.
Paige felt right for Cerri as she carries that same natural light, radiance, and joy in real life that Cerri carries underneath her own grief in the story. It's not performed. It's just who Paige is, and it means the warmth on screen never feels like acting — it feels like her.
She is also, hand to heart, one of the most dedicated actresses I've worked with. Cerri's Scottish accent is — I'll admit it — probably the hardest one I could have written for her, and Paige has been working with a dialect coach to get every note of it right. That kind of commitment tells you everything about how seriously she takes this role, and this world.
What I love most, though, is watching her with the girls on set. Everything between them feels real and connected, the way found family should.
Want to know something funny? I have a whole headcanon that Cerri's favorite place to eat in Amberlight Valley is The Bistro at Annie's, tucked right here in the White Mountains — and some days I catch myself wishing Paige lived close enough that we could go grab a table there together as ourselves, not just as writer and character.
That's the kind of actress she is. She doesn't just play Cerri. She makes you want to sit down and have tea with her. And I am so grateful I get to call her my friend.
Dalea Faulkner is an author, filmmaker, and creative living in the White Mountains of Arizona. Her Amberlight Valley trilogy is available now. Her world is always, in some way, the mountains.
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