Kiritimati, known as Christmas Island, belongs to Kiribati and is among the first inhabited places to enter a new year.
Kiritimati is the world's largest coral atoll by land area and lies in the central Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Line Islands, which are administered by the Republic of Kiribati. The island's name is the Gilbertese rendering of “Christmas,” reflecting its discovery by Europeans on December 24, 1777.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line around its eastern islands in 1994 and 1995. That change placed the Line Islands on the UTC+14 time zone, the world's furthest-ahead civil time zone. As a result, Kiritimati is often highlighted in global New Year's coverage.
The phrase “first place” can be oversimplified: the order depends on time zones and which locations are inhabited. Kiritimati is not the first land on Earth to see daylight, but it is one of the earliest inhabited locations to reach January 1.