HONOLULU (KHON2) -- We know you've still got pumpkins out for Halloween, but Paula Tajiri and the team from Christmas Hawaii are already preparing Christmas trees to ship to the island. According to Tajiri, this year's trees are top-notch.
Tajiri works for the Christmas Tree Farm in Mossyrock, Wash., which she calls the best place to grow Hawaii's most popular tree.
"A majority of our customers want Noble Firs, that's why this is my main place to tag trees," she said.
To ensure Hawaii customers get the best trees, Tajiri said she started tagging them months ago.
"We started at the end of August until actually today I did the final ones. And the first week of November, we start cutting the trees."
She added the trees heading to Hawaii this season are beautiful following a season of not too much heat, rain or fires.
"Compared to the last couple of years, we had a pretty mild summer and then started raining. Today's a wonderful day, but it started raining in October so it's nice. The trees are nice this year."
Around 2,500 trees will be brought to the islands for the 2024 holiday season, which is about the same as the last few years.
Tajiri said the selection will be better and there will be more variety. Even better news, the farm kept their prices the same as last year.
"However, Matson went up about 10% and also the minimum wage went up about 15% this year. So I need to adjust it a little bit."
This will also be the 49th year Christmas Hawaii will provide trees to honor her late husband, Richard, who promised to be here for 50 years.
"The Christmas tree business is really hard, lots of work physically, mentally, everything. But it's worth it to see our customer's faces with happy faces. The grandparents with us now, the grandkids era, it's very nice to be home," she said.
The Christmas Hawaii team will be located on the lower Diamond Head level of the Ala Moana Center parking lot. The first trees will go on sale starting Nov. 23.