"The New Year is coming" is usual. "Look, they are already selling Christmas decorations in the store! I guess the New Year is coming." Here, the New Year means, specifically, 2017. In 2016, it is _the_ new year. And it is capitalized, because we associate it with the name of a holiday.
"A new year is coming" is rare. It means we are thinking of it as a repetitive event, one of many. "It's been a tough year, but a new year is coming." It carries some of the same feeling as "A new age is coming" or "a new day is dawning," a general hope for freshness and revival. "Oh, well; there's always a tomorrow, there's always a new year coming."