Kiribati is famous for celebrating New Year's Eve among the world's earliest inhabited places because of its UTC+14 time zone.
Kiribati's Line Islands, including Kiritimati, lie on the western side of the International Date Line and use Line Islands Time, which is UTC+14. That means the calendar date advances there before it does in most other inhabited locations. News coverage often describes Kiritimati as one of the first inhabited places to welcome a new year.
The detail is about time zones, not the country's geographic position alone. Kiribati moved the International Date Line around its eastern islands in 1995 so the nation could share the same calendar day across its territory. Tonga, Samoa, and parts of New Zealand also celebrate early, but they use different time-zone arrangements and should not be substituted for Kiribati in this question.