Kiribati includes Kiritimati, among the first inhabited places to welcome each New Year.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of Kiribati's Line Islands. It uses UTC+14, the world's furthest-forward civil time zone, so its local midnight arrives earlier than midnight in most other inhabited locations. This makes the island a frequent subject of New Year's Eve “first to celebrate” reports.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its Line Islands in 1994. The change aligned the country's widely separated islands on the same calendar date, eliminating a situation in which some parts of Kiribati were nearly a day behind others.
The phrase “first in the world” needs care because time-zone boundaries are political and can change. Kiritimati is not the first place on Earth to experience sunrise in every season, and nearby Pacific islands may share or approach the same time. The key fact is that its civil clock operates at UTC+14, placing it among the earliest inhabited places to reach January 1.