Christmas is a great festival to introduce to kids, with all the food and presents and merry-making. While Christmas usually becomes the highlight of your little ones' life for quite a few years, what do you do when your child gets older and starts questioning the existence of Father Christmas?

It's impossible to prevent your child from questioning Santa. There will always be a little friend or acquaintance from school or the neighbourhood pack who's determined to spoil everyone else's fun by boldly announcing that Father Christmas isn't real.

So what do you do? Here are some ideas for keeping the magic of Christmas alive for your children:

1) Miracle on 34th Street
Watch Miracle on 34th Street (the1994 version in colour, starring Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins and Mara Wilson) with your child – this sweet, inspiring tale about how an old man is put on trial for claiming to be Father Christmas is sure to make your child rethink what they've been told and realise that the choice in believing in Father Christmas and embracing the magic is up to them.

2) Letter to Santa
Get your child to write a letter to Father Christmas, detailing what they'd like to receive. If you don't want to pay for a personalised letter, most post offices in the world now have people who will reply to letters for free. In the UK, Royal Mail will reply if you address the letter to: “Father Christmas, North Pole, SAN TA1”. You can also send a letter to Santa Claus' Village in Finland at: “Santa Claus, Santa Claus Village, Arctic Circle, Finland, FIN-96930” or send Santa an email.

3) Christmas Cookies
Encourage your child to make Christmas cookies with you and then leave them out, together with a glass of milk/mulled wine/hot chocolate, by the tree on Christmas Eve. You can find a good recipe for Christmas cookies here. Note: make sure the cookies aren't completely eaten, since it's more believable that Father Christmas had eaten too many cookies that night already!

4) St. Nicholas
Teach your child about the origins of St. Nicholas and Christmas. You can find out about the real Santa Claus at the St. Nicholas Center.

5) Show some Evidence
Get an evidence & boot print kit from SantaProof.com, providing your children with tangible “evidence” that Father Christmas really came on Christmas Eve.

6) Santa Claus' Village
If you're planning to go on a short break over the Christmas holidays with your family, why not visit Finland? There, you can make a trip to Santa Claus' Village in Rovaniemi, the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland, where you can visit Santa at his office and learn how he's able to fit down chimneys and deliver all the presents in one night around the world. You can also view the Santa Claus Main Post Office, which deals with over 700,000 letters every year to Father Christmas.