Its wonderful smell, pointy figure, color and lights surrounding it tells us that December is here and in just a few days Christmas will be something to rejoice about.

We know Christmas is near when we see a Christmas tree, but do you know its meaning?

The origin of a Christmas tree goes way back to a tradition that was practiced in Northern Europe way before the birth of Jesus Christ.

According to legend, bishop and martyr Saint Boniface (680-754) arrived to what is Germany, as a missioner and, to demonstrate the superiority of his faith, he cut a sacred pine oak from its ropes in the city of Geismar, where his inhabitants used to leave offerings and sacrifices each year. The natives, filled with indignation from such insolence, wanted to lynch him, but not only was Saint Boniface able to calm them down with his eloquence, he was also able to convince them of the arrival of the Son of God, who will save all those who accepted him and that banishing any other deity was a necessity.

Nowadays Christmas trees are a tradition and usually look spectacular; Christmas surprises us all throughout the world with a public display that features the biggest and brightest Christmas trees. The top 5 biggest and most beautiful trees of 2014 are:

1. Floating tree, Brazil

According to Guinness Book of World Records, this floating Christmas tree is the biggest one. The construction is set up in the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon in Rio de Janeiro. Its 278 ft. tall, it weighs 542 and it has over 3 million lights. The tree light up every night until January 6th.

2. Human tree, Honduras

2,945 people in Honduras dressed up in green, brown and yellow to create the world's biggest human Christmas tree. This way, they exceeded the human Christmas tree in Argentina who only united 1,982 people last year. To achieve this record, the only had to stand without moving for 6 minutes.

3. LEGO tree, among the streets of Sydney Australia

Located at Westfield Sydney mall, its 32 ft. tall and to set it up it took 200 hours of work divided among 5 people.

4. The world's biggest natural tree, located in the German street of Dortmund

It's147 ft. tall. This natural spruce required 48 thousand lights and 20 candles in the shape of decorations to complete it.

5. Vatican tree, garnishing the San Pedro plaza

At 82 ft., it was donated by the Italian region of Calabria and it's estimated to be 70 years old in addition to the two tree trunks that unite it.

With information from:

Algarabía, El Universal, sopitas.com y De10.mx

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