Pretty paper. Well-told stories. One-page max. And space for a personalized note.

Those are Christine Lyon’s keys to creating holiday letters that her friends and relatives look forward to reading each year.

Lyon, 41, of Huntington Woods, Mich., began the annual tradition in 2001, initially as a way to update family and friends on her growing family — her husband, Dave, 40, and their three children: Nick, 8, Veronica, 6, and Alex, 4.

“Dave has family all across the country, and kids change so fast from year to year,” says Lyon, a stay-at-home mom. “This is a tool to get people caught up with where are they now, what are they doing, what are they interested in. It’s personalizing the essence of who they are, not just a list of accomplishments.”

While it may sound simple, writing a good holiday letter requires some sugar and spice to make everything nice. And achieving the perfect mix is not always easy.

Wayne State University English professor Jerry Herron says he finds most holiday letters “absolutely mind-numbingly dull and unreadable. My advice is: Don’t do it.”

If you are going to do it, he advises you to decide what you want to say, say it and be done with it. Unless you know you’re a clever writer, write simply and to the point.

Rather than bemoan bad letters, California-based writer Michael Lent had fun embellishing some and creating others in a humorous compilation called “Christmas Letters from Hell: All the News We Hate From the People We Love” ($10, Fireside).

“Most of the letters we received were a cross between high school journalism and an annual shareholders report to friends and family,” Lent says. “Your valiant conquering of a bladder condition may not be the best holiday fare. Remember, not only will somebody read these letters, but sometimes they’re read aloud.”