First, create your new world.
You can enable the bonus chest if you want, it contains good starting gear, as you can see:


In this case, I did not take the contents of the chest.
If you do take the chest contents, it is advisable also to take the torches and the chest itself.
But now, let us look at our surroundings:



You cannot do this in Survival, of course, but exploring the area is a must.
As you can see, we've spawned next to a pretty valley with some cliffs.
This might not be true in your case if you following the tutorial in-game, though.
Areas like these are highly fancy to spend your first night in because of the cliffs.



While we explore, we should cut down some trees. The tree will yield various drops:

• Wood
  
• Saplings
  
• Apples
  
  

Wood is a key material for almost everything. We will need a lot of it.
Saplings can be used to plant new trees, for more wood.
Apples are used to keep your hunger bar full.



I found a nice piece of cliff and put down my workbench. I made a pickaxe and an axe.
These are the tools you will need most.
Now we need cobblestone and coal.
Luckily there was some coal on a cliff nearby.

With the coal we make a few torches, and the cobblestone is used to make a furnace.



Now we have these items, it i time to dig a little shelter into the cliff.
It is not fancy, but it meets your needs for a safe first night home.




As you can see we used some more wood to make a door and a chest.
The chest is sufficient for now. It can contain items we do not directly need.
The door is of course used to disallow mobs access.

Warning: Zombies can break doors on hard mode!
To stop zombies from breaking your door you can put a block of dirt outside it.
Later we will have a more permanent solution for this, with an iron door. This is not a priority, though.

My hunger bar isn't down yet, but that's because I was getting some shots of the area in Creative Mode.
In your case, it might help to eat some apples.

I was looking for food a bit as well. Luckily, with the stone sword I made I could easily kill a pig.
Also, for long-term food supply, I got some seeds.




Now it is time to cook the pork using some coal.
There are also other fuels, but coal is in my opinion the best one in most cases.



If you need info on fuels of foods look at the spoilers at the bottom of this tutorial.

Now that we have food and a shelter, we are ready for nightfall.
If it is still light outside, you can also look for sheep and kill them in order to gain wool.
With three wool and three wood you can make a bed and sleep through the night as well as setting your spawn.



There we go. A first day well spent. It is dark outside and monsters will be spawning soon.
Do not be afraid, though. You have all things needed to make your first night a success as well.



So while it is still dark you might as well start mining.
There is a good chance you'll find some iron.
Don't foget to bring multiple pickaxes, or you might run out.
Bringing torches is a good idea as well.

But more on the subject of mining later!
You've just spent your first Minecraft day and night without dying, and that's a noteworthy achievement.
Congratulations.

-Gamesaucer