Kiribati uses Kiritimati to experience the world's earliest New Year's midnight among inhabited places.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of Kiribati's Line Islands and observes UTC+14, the most advanced civil time zone. As a result, its clock reaches January 1 before clocks in nearly every other inhabited location. News coverage often calls it one of the first places on Earth to welcome the new year.
The distinction depends on the definition of “first,” because time zones are political boundaries rather than natural divisions. Kiribati moved the International Date Line eastward around its eastern islands in 1994, bringing the country onto the same calendar day. Kiritimati should not be confused with Australia's Christmas Island, which is a separate territory in the Indian Ocean and uses a different time zone.