The Winter Olympics XXI, hosted in Vancouver this year, officially starts tonight with the opening ceremonies and ski jumping preliminaries! But forget about the luge, ice hockey or bobsled; what we’re waiting to see at the 2010 Winter Olympics are the costumes worn in the ice skating events. From glamorous costumes (think Nancy Kerrigan) to more garish outfits (think ice nemesis, Tonya Harding), watching the sport for the outfits alone is reason enough.

 These flashy costumes, that can cost thousands of dollars, are designed months, even a year, in advance to fit with the athlete’s music, personality and style. To a professional skater, wearing the right skating outfit is no different than choosing the perfect Oscar gown for a movie star. Even celebrity clothing designer, Vera Wang, has made costumes for some of the top contenders in the sport such as Evan Lysacek, Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan. Wang reports that the costumes must sparkle from every angle like an evening dress yet hold up to the strains of working out hard, a tall order.

 There are no fictional characters who can rock a sequined bodysuit better that Chazz Micheal Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy in the 2007 comedy, .  These two rival Olympic ice skaters (played by Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, respectively) team up as an unlikely skating pair after being banned from single competition. You can create your own hysterical tribute to this laugh-out-loud farce by creating your own costumes. Just bedazzling some Lycra workout wear with rhinestones and spangles and you’ll have all the confidence you need to throw a triple Salcow jump. Add a long brown wig or perfectly-coiffed pretty boy blonde wig, headbands and face paint (all found through Costume Machine) to create a perfect 10 ice skating costume!

Word is that Will Ferrell turned down $29 million dollars to star in a sequel of his hysterically funny 2003 movie, Elf. Gasp! While Ferrell admit that $29 million “did sound like a lot of money for a guy in tights”, he just didn’t want to risk making the all-too-familiar bad sequel film. That is such a shame because we sure loved him as Buddy, the orphaned human who was stowed away in Santa’s sack, inadvertently taken to the North Pole and raised by elves. As the story goes, eventually his enormous-for-an-elf size makes Buddy curious about his background and he heads out to New York City for what can only be described as an adventure of epic proportions.

Dressing up as Buddy the Elf, is always a funny choice this time of year and shows that you’ve got good taste in comedy as a fan of Will Ferrell. Movie insiders say that the elf costumes in the movie Elf were modeled after the stop-action animated elves in the 1964 classic Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. We agree that there is a similarity between these elf costumes and the Buddy Elf suit. You’ll be the smiley, candy-loving “man in tights” with a child-like innocence dressed up in a Buddy Elf costume with bright yellow leggings and a long, plush green jacket. You can also pick up a ringlet mop of auburn hair that resembles Ferrell’s own curly locks. Add a buckled brown belt, a cone-shaped hat and pointy-toe elf shoes to complete your look as the tallest elf at the North Pole! Even if you are 6-feet tall, you can still suit up in an elf costume and spread Christmas cheer to all corners of the globe this holiday season – come on, discover your own inner elf and make Buddy proud!