Kiritimati is widely associated with being among the first inhabited places to welcome the New Year.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean. It uses UTC+14, the world's furthest-forward civil time zone, so midnight arrives there before it does in most other inhabited locations. The island lies on the eastern side of the International Date Line's modern bend.
Kiribati moved the International Date Line around its eastern islands in 1995 so that the country would share one calendar day. That change helped make Kiritimati especially famous in global New Year's coverage.
The wording “first” can be misleading because several places share the same UTC+14 time zone or reach midnight at the same moment. Kiritimati is therefore best described as one of the first inhabited places, rather than an absolutely unique first location in every possible comparison.