For many Canadians, the tapping of cellphone keypads will replace the traditional New Year's kiss.

Canadians are expected to send a record-breaking 50 million text messages on the evening of Dec. 31, according to Virgin Mobile Canada.

Text messaging is popular with young people on special occasions.
(CBC)

Last year's New Year's Eve text message tally was around 25 million.

On an average day in 2007, Canadians sent about 31.5 million text messages, the company says.

"There's no doubt about it — we're becoming complete text maniacs and we get right into it on big occasions," says company spokesman Nathan Rosenberg.

"Whenever we celebrate, people love to express how they feel with a text message. New Year's Eve is the climax of that frenzy," he says.

Among the company's other predictions:

• Canadians will send on average two text messages each on New Year's Eve, double the size of last year's forecast.
• Textaholics aged 18-30 will be the biggest texters on the 31st, sending an average of four text messages each.
• One in four think they might "get lucky" this New Year's Eve with a text, because it's easier to send naughty texts than naughty phone calls.

Popular text message suggestions for the holidays include "kiss ya l8r xoxo" and "I gotta bag of gifts 4 u," according to Virgin Mobile.