No firm release date has (or is likely) to be set. Verizon and other carriers refuse to give advanced notice on these kinds of things, because if something happens, or a bug is found at the last minute and they have to delay the release, you have thousands of people "screaming and whining" that they didn't release it on time... Also, you can get someone trying to get out of their contract, saying "I bought the phone with the promise that it would have Android 2.1 on such and such a date, now you've lied to me, I want out.."
You get the idea.
If I had to guess, I would say it's likely that it will be released sometime in the next 3 weeks, possibly as early as Jan 21 from some rumors, but keep in mind, those are just that, rumors and speculation.
I've got Android 2.1 installed and running on an old HTC Hero from Sprint, and it's nice, but not revolutionary. Some of the added voice recognition is nice, but I wouldn't get our panties in a bunch fretting over it. I haven't bothered putting it on my Droid, although it's rooted, and reportedly the 2.1 build for Droid is pretty functional.
