The festive frenzy will reach its peak tomorrow as nearly 7.5 million Canadians flock to local stores in hopes of finally crossing everyone off their holiday shopping lists. According to the eighth annual Visa gift-giving survey, Canadians will spend an estimated $2 billion on gifts during the busiest shopping day.

“Over the last eight years, we’ve found that the busiest shopping day is typically December 23, but since Christmas Day falls on a Monday this year, we anticipate Canadians will try to finish their shopping on Friday,” said Tania Freedman, director, corporate communications, Visa Canada.

Earlier this month, Visa released its holiday spending survey results, which put the total amount spent on holiday gifts at an estimated $20 billion. While the number of last-minute shoppers is down again when compared to 2005 (7.4 million versus 7.8 million), Canadians are expected to spend $70 million more during the busiest day than last year. The survey also revealed that Canadians expect to spend an average of $930 on holiday gifts, up from $887 in 2005.

Between November 26 and December 20, Canadians spent nearly $11 billion on their Visa cards. Visa Canada expects to process over 9 million credit card transactions today and tomorrow, amounting to approximately $1 billion in sales volume.

During the busiest hour tomorrow, Visa will process almost 410,000 transactions, or over 300 transactions per second.