Long for New Year ahead (5)
I believe the answer is:
yearn
'long for' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'new year ahead' is the wordplay.
'new' becomes 'n'.
'ahead' says to put letters next to each other.
'n' after 'year' is 'YEARN'.
(Other definitions for yearn that I've seen before include "Have a craving" , "Desire, want" , "Ache, crave" , "Have a great longing" , "Have an intense feeling of longing" .)