America’s Christmas tree: The hunt for the iconic Rockefeller tree

Heather Gianfriddo and her mother Jane D’Alessandro are standing in the middle of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, waiting to fulfill a lifelong dream.

For the past 30 years or so, since Heather was a 4-year-old girl, they’ve been watching the lighting of the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree every year on TV – a long-standing holiday tradition that also marked the evening they trimmed their own tree at home in Toronto, Canada.

“It’s such a tradition, and it’s such a symbol of Christmas,” says Ms. Gianfriddo, who made the trip