"It's like being Santa Claus, it's part of kicking off the holiday season," said Gary Nakamatsu, Vice President of Sales at Matson.

Before the trees even leave the dock, inspectors with the Department of Agriculture check each container thoroughly and selected trees get a shakedown for invasive species.

"We're looking for any type of hitchhikers, insects, slugs, snails, even small animals. If it gets into the environment, into the urban areas, it could be a potential health or an agricultural environmental problem," said Glenn Sakamoto, Department of Agriculture.

Crews found a batch of bugs in two containers while inspecting a smaller shipment earlier this week.

"We found some heavy infestation of slugs not found here in Hawaii," said Sakamoto.

"We have to ship them back to the shipper in Oregon," said Nakamatsu.

Once they're cleared, the trees will make their way all over the state.

"They go to various retailers and fund raisers, some of them will end up going to the neighbor islands," said Nakamatsu.

So you can rest assure that the only thing your Christmas tree will bring to your home is holiday cheer.

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