The Line Islands are in the UTC+14 time zone, among the first places to enter a new year.
UTC+14 is the world's most advanced civil time zone. It is used by the Line Islands of Kiribati, including Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island. When midnight arrives there, much of the world is still on the previous calendar date.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its territory in 1994 so that its widely separated islands would share the same calendar day. The change made the eastern Line Islands some of the first inhabited places to celebrate New Year's Day.
The phrase “first place in the world” can be misleading because it depends on whether one means a time-zone area, an inhabited settlement, or a particular moment of official celebration. UTC+14 identifies the civil-time offset precisely. It should not be confused with UTC−12, which is the opposite extreme and reaches a new date much later.