The Word: Diamonds are a dating guru’s best present

Let Stanger help you through the holidays.

Oh, the beauty of dating around the holidays. You go from being asked why you don’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend to, when you do finally have someone you could fathom bringing home, stressing out about introducing your current sex buddy to your parents without resorting to pharmaceuticals.

So you don’t overdose on Xanax, we brought in a professional:?”Millionaire Matchmaker” Patti Stanger, who we caught up with at a tasting of TY KU in New York City.

“First of all, the person who comes should bring a gift to the parents,” Stanger instructs. “That sets the tone. Find out what [your partner's parents] like. Wine? Chocolate? The second thing is telling your parents a little bit about the person’s interests and likes, so they have a hot button to push,” she notes. “Tell the same thing to your mate, so they can get into a conversation. Once that’s broken in, they’ll be fine.”

Feeling better??Good. Now onto the next dilemma: What should you give as a gift? If you’re on a budget, don’t look to Stanger for guidance — they call her the “Millionaire Matchmaker” for a reason. When we asked what was the best holiday gift she ever received, she didn’t miss a beat: “Jewelry and diamonds. Diamonds are the best.”

Paging Gloria Steinem?

Stanger is getting nervous about the reversal of modern gender roles. “I wonder why men are getting more passive and we’re getting stronger,” she ponders about the current state of the sexes. “There are more [women] in college, we’re making more money and now men are getting wimpy. Soon they’re going to morph into girls. And then there will be nobody [else] but our vibrators. Seriously.”

— With reporting by Olivia Morrow