Mary Summers, the Holiday Witch

Doors to the shop opened slowly, not disturbing the bell above them enough to make a sound. A colorful shape sneaked inside, looked around, and as quietly as possible, closed the door behind it. It started to move between the shelves, not knowing that it fails in being sneaky because of a giant green hat adorned with holly on its head.
Dan quietly moved behind it, wondering what the shape is planning to do. The shape looked around every few steps. Not finding its target, it reached the counter and looked behind it.
"Next time, if you want me to not notice you, maybe try to pick clothes that will actually blend in." The words actually spooked the shape, causing it to jump up in surprise. The shape turned around, revealing a girl whose now red and white hair seemed to be bigger than her whole body. She wore a fluffy green coat made out of spiky but soft-looking fur, resembling a Christmas tree. Her blue eyes with star-shaped irises opened wide when she realized who just scared her.
"Danny!", she shouted as she jumped and rushed to hug him. Dan evaded her first few "attacks" only to let her win before she lost motivation. The girl didn't waste her opportunity and picked up Dan in her arms, spinning around with him and rubbing her cheek against his, giggling all the time. She put him down before he would be annoyed by being treated like a little kid (even though she knows Dan never gets angry at her).
"I'm glad to see you again, Mary." An honest, warm smile showed up on his tired face.
"Oh come on, Dan, don't say it like I haven't been in your shop a little over a month ago."
"So, you came this time because?"
"Because it's Christmas, dummy!", she booped his nose and laughed.
Her answer surprised Dan. Instead of reacting to her touching his nose, she could see he started counting days in his head, only to nod as something clicked. "That would explain all the customers I had the last few days."
"Oh, Danny, don't tell me you worked so much you forgot what day it is again," she put her hands on her hips and leaned towards him with a disappointed face, like a mother who just caught her kid doing some mischief. He turned away his eyes, guilty as charged.
"That's it," a smile appeared on her face again. "As a punishment, you are going to visit the Christmas market with me." Before he managed to protest, she spun around, ran to the door, and changed the 'OPEN' sign to 'CLOSED'. "Let's get you ready!"

Mary is one of the more powerful holiday witches residing in the human world. She shows up only around holidays and festivities, usually a few days before them, as her magic helps with preparations for them. She has an almost unnatural luck with getting assigned to places her friend, Dan, works at the moment.

Appearance and apparel

The first thing one will notice about Mary is that her apparel and appearance will always reflect the holiday she takes part in. She'll wear colorful clothes adorned with the symbols of the holiday and her hair will turn to colors that will accentuate the clothing in some way. Even her eyes change their color while her irises change their shape.
There are only three things that never change when it comes to how Mary looks. Her hair is always very long and curly, wider and bigger than her body. Apparently, she had way shorter hair when she was studying to be a witch, but since then, she never cut it to the length above her thighs.
She always keeps her honey skin tone, only tanning a little during the strings of summer festivals.
Compared to some other holiday witches, her height never changes. She likes that, as some of her friends who do, often complain about having to buy clothes of different sizes.

Outside of work

There is only a handful of people who have seen Mary outside of holiday times. When at home, she tends to keep the last hair and eye color she had. On cold days she'll wear soft, fluffy sweaters and comfortable pants. On warmer days, she prefers light clothes, with long dresses being her favorite.

Personaly history

Early life

Mary Summers was born an only child to Michael and Agatha Summers, on the 21st of March, 1755. For the first eleven years of her life, she lived with them in the small English village. Even back then, she loved various festivities, a feeling that got especially strong when she was 9. It was then that a holiday witch was passing through her village on the day of a local festival. The witch decided to stop and celebrate with everyone else. With her magic, she created beautiful decorations and covered all of the houses with them. And later, at night, she created a firework show the people would still be talking about years later.
Merely 2 years later, Mary started showing a predisposition for magic. She asked her parents if that means she would also be able to create such beautiful things, just like the witch that visited their village. They told her she would need training first. And so, they decided to send her to the big city, so she could become a student at a witch academy.

Witch academy

Back then, before the gates to other worlds opened, magical abilities awakened within way fewer people. Holiday witches were also a rarity among those few casters. Still, Mary had her goal set ahead of her and she never deviated from it. Her powers slowly grew. Even when the Great Fae War broke out 3 years later, and many students decided to return to their homes for safety, she stayed in school, learning (though she kept sending her parents messages regularly, first by mail, later by spells). And so, 10 years after first stepping through the doors of the academy, she was a full-fledged holiday witch.

Great Fae War

The war lasted for another 13 years. During that time, most of the licensed casters had to serve, in some way, to protect their world. As a holiday witch, Mary couldn't really be sent on the front lines. Instead, due to her knowing summoning magic, her tasks involved the transportation of heavy supplies. She quickly managed to befriend most of her team, which quickly became favorite suppliers among soldiers as wherever they traveled, the laughter and dances traveled with them.

After the war

Once the war ended, Mary could finally become a real holiday witch instead of just being called one. Since then, she only appears officially during the holidays, spending her free time in her home.
In 1803, 2 years before he got cursed, she met Dan for the first time during one of the new elven festivals adopted by humans. They had a nice talk and at the end of the day, they said goodbye to each other as friends.
A few months later, Mary found Magical Curiosities, Dan's shop, completely by accident, in another town she was working in. Since then, they would often bump into each other during various different holidays, a thing she embraces happily (while Dan was really confused the first 20 years about to the point he thought someone placed some weird spell on them). Their meetings happen less often nowadays, but that only strengthens the joy they feel when they do meet again.

Species:
Human?

Age

135

Height

185 cm

Known Languages

As a holiday witch, Mary can speak any language of the country she currently is in.
Out of human languages, she learned French, Spanish, English, Italian, and Japanese.
She also knows common Elven, common Beastly, and common Infernal.

Virtues:
Extremely energetic, caring, optimistic
Flaws:
Tends to fixate to do something perfectly, is stubborn, has problems with pacing herself which leads to burnout
Likes:
Celebrating, sweets, Dan
Dislikes:
Overwork, long periods of no holidays, really sour things

Magic

"I'm telling you, those gingerbread men pack quite a punch. You really don't want to mess with them."

Just like other holiday witches, Mary can mostly use magic related to enhancing the festivities.
She can create fireworks, magical helpers, locate lost things or beings (as long as they are still on the festival grounds), create an aura that will enhance the taste and the smell of the food, and repair stuff.
But one should not underestimate her offensive abilities. The same fireworks and magical helpers that normally are quite innocuous can quickly turn into powerful weapons against most enemies. If she doesn't want to hurt her enemy, she still can summon ropes, garlands, plants (during nature festivals), that can immobilize them.
And since all holiday witches gain more power the more people around them celebrate, cheer or have fun, turning the battle into a spectacle can enhance her power to ridiculous levels. Additionally, magic of holiday witches won't harm anyone who is not a threat, making Mary and her friends the perfect bodyguards.

Not aging

Most of the stronger casters (mostly the ones who showed up before gates to the other worlds opened) can use a small portion of their magic to permanently stop aging (unless they themselves remove that spell). Mary decided to stop aging halfway through the Great Fae War when she was 25.