If you simply can't wait to do the countdown to midnight, start celebrating New Year's Eve vicariously with places around the world already deep into their festivities. Per CNN, the island of Kiritimati in the South Pacific became the first to welcome in 2025, at 5am ET, while New Zealand's Auckland claimed honors as the first major city to kick things off, reports the AP. The final stragglers ushering in the new year will be Hawaii, American Samoa, and other islands on the other side of the international date line. Check out timelines from around the globe, planned activities, and more here, here, and here. (More New Year's Eve stories.)