Kiribati is among the first nations to enter the New Year because Kiritimati uses UTC+14.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. The island lies in the Line Islands, whose local time is 14 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. As a result, the date changes there earlier than in most inhabited places.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its Line Islands in 1994. Before that change, the country's islands were separated by different calendar dates, making it difficult for the nation to conduct business and share the same working week.
Kiritimati is often described in media reports as one of the first inhabited places to celebrate New Year's Eve. The phrase “first” depends on whether a source means a nation, an inhabited settlement, or a location with a particular time zone, so UTC+14 is the key fact.