Red is the ideal Christmas colour.

“Man,’’ muses Charleston Hughes, “I don’t know how I woulda looked wearing a different colour. Wearing blue or green or black.

“I have no idea. No clue.

“I’ve only had one colour scheme.

“It’d have been … weird. Tough.

“And you’re right, red’s a nice Christmas colour. So it’s all good now.”

Wednesday, four days from the big day, the pending free agent rush end agreed to a two-year contract extension with the Calgary Stampeders, the only CFL organization he’s ever known.

So raise a glass of eggnog in a toast.

After nine standout seasons coming off the edge at McMahon Stadium, Charleston Hughes is a gift that just keeps on giving.

“It came together quite quickly at the end,’’ he relays. “I’m just happy it’s over with and now I can concentrate on Christmas and just being back home.

“I didn’t know how the situation was going to play out. I had every intention of seeing what the free-agent situation was all about.

“You always have that in the back of your mind, what’s out there, on the other side. You never know what your stock is valued at, what people think you’re worth. And this was all new to me.

“But my first priority was always to exhaust all opportunities with Calgary; make sure I made the proper decision for both sides.

“Now that we’ve come to an agreement, I’m kinda glad it didn’t come to anything else.”

The fact he’s set up off the field here, working as a manager at a Cattle Baron restaurant locally, played a sizeable part in his decision, too.

“I was talking all this time about ‘I’m not afraid to go’ and stuff like that but in the back of my head I knew I’d be walking away from a lot.

“You’ve got to take so much into account, size everything up, the pros and the cons, and do what’s best for yourself.”

A freshly-minted 33 (on Dec. 12th), Hughes has a ferocious appetite for the hunt that remains undiminished.

His 16 quarterback takedowns this past season netted a second CFL sack title and has drawn him to within 11 of the great Will Johnson’s career franchise record of 99. He’ll be chasing that, as much as Mike Reilly or Jonathan Jennings, next summer.

Over his Stampeder career, he’s claimed at least a share of the team lead in sacks in seven seasons. An amazing statistic.

And shows no signs of slowing down. The Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 is outfitted with a 5.2-liter, 526-horsepower V8 known as the “Voodoo.”

Charleston Hughes, the buzz-saw from Saginaw, must have a variation of that beast purring underneath his hood.

“Naw. I don’t run off gas anymore,’’ he jokes in rebuttal. “I run off electricity now. But I didn’t bump it up to a Tesla.

“I mean, I’ve been lucky to be fairly healthy. I’ve only had one surgery over nine years. And I’m somewhat of a late bloomer when it comes to football. It’s not like I’ve been playing my whole life. I never really started playing until was 16, 17.

“So probably the wear and tear isn’t as extreme as it is on somebody that started when they were, say, eight, playing peewee football.”

Besides the 2016 sack crown, Hughes comfirmed his position as one of the dominant defensive players of an era by receiving a CFL all-star nod and the club’s nominee for Most Outstanding Defensive Player, each for a third time.

“Doesn’t surprise me,’’ says defensive co-ordinator DeVone Claybrooks. “The guys who can do it at a high level for a long time put in a lot of time and effort off the field. He does a great job taking care of his body in the off-season.

“He spends a lot of hour and lot of his own money, out of his own pocket, for a trainer in Detroit and a nutritionist.

“So he comes in here already ripped up and just tries to maintain that during the season. The guys do a great job with him here and he piggybacks that onto what he did when he was away.

“We’re very happy to have him back. He’s been a staple of what we do, provides us with great defensive versatility in the game plan.

“He’s just one of the best players in the league.”

So now that Santa Huf has slipped a two-year contract extension into No. 39’s stocking, what does Charleston Hughes hope to find gift-wrapped for opening Christmas morn?

“Under the tree?” Hughes thinks on that a moment. “Hmmmmm. Lemme see …

“How about a watch? A nice Apple watch. That’d be awesome. I like wearing watches. I like switching ‘em up.”

And if not this Dec. 25, stick around a while longer – past those two additional years – and maybe he’ll get a watch.

Timepieces, after all, are pretty standard fare upon the retirement of long-standing employees who have done their company proud.

“Yeah,’’ he muses, “you stay somewhere at a company long enough, when you retire usually a watch comes into play.

“I guess I can wait.”

The gift that, at 33, just keeps on giving, is officially back in the only colour scheme anyone can imagine him wearing.

With red, of course, being ideal for Christmas.