Christmas Hawaii was started by Richard Tajiri and his venturous friends in 1976. They brought in two 20' containers and sold them mostly to hotels and other commercial establishments.

While Richard's friends found the tree business not profitable enough for the amount of extremely hard work, Richard found the challenge fun; traveling to the mainland, meeting new people and bringing the best quality trees to Hawaii. 

In 1983, he married Paula. Together they incorporated the business as FMR (Fast Moving Richard) Sales and expanded the business to become a major Christmas tree retailer on Oahu. Since then, the container counts have been growing each year and they have become the biggest single owner retailer of Christmas trees in Hawaii.

During these years, Richard Tajiri has introduced revolutionary new ideas and inventions such as “Stand Straight pin stands”, “Tree IV”, as well as bringing in a wider variety of tree species like Fraser firs, Colorado Spruce, Nordmans and more to Hawaii. He also created ‘Tip Flocking’, which is a specialized technique that makes green trees look like real snow-covered trees.

Richard spends hundreds of hours visiting various farms in Oregon and Washington throughout the year checking and tagging his trees. He even helps farmers prune their trees so that they can grow the best quality trees to take to Hawaii.

Richard Tajiri is now known as one of the most knowledgeable retailers within the Christmas Tree industry, and is lovingly known as the "Godfather of Christmas Trees" and/or "Mr. Christmas" in Hawaii. 

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Sadly, he passed away right after his 78th birthday in 2020. His wife Paula and daughter Ami continue his legacy, and intend to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the business under his name with the help of their loyal employees.  

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