Kiribati is traditionally credited with beginning the first New Year's Eve celebrations because of its early time zone.
Kiribati includes the Line Islands, whose local time is UTC+14, the world's furthest-forward standard time zone. That position means places such as Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, reach midnight before most other inhabited locations.
The distinction depends on time-zone rules and the date line rather than on a universal physical “first” celebration. Countries and territories can change time-zone policies, and the first inhabited place to reach midnight is not always the same as the first land anywhere on Earth.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its islands in 1994, placing all of its territory on the same calendar day. The change helped coordinate the country's islands and made the Line Islands famous in global New Year comparisons. Samoa is also often mentioned because it changed sides of the date line in 2011, but it is not the standard answer to this particular early-midnight question.