Canada Post has identified the rogue elves responsible for rude letters from Santa that were mailed to Ottawa-area children in December, the Crown corporation said Thursday.

The culprits responsible for writing and mailing at least 10 inappropriate letters — containing curse words and descriptions of lewd acts — were minors, the postal agency said. 

"Canada Post was horrified at the news last month that some recipients of mail from Santa in the Ottawa area had received inappropriate letters," said Cindy Daoust, Canada Post's manager of marketing and public relations. "While we apologized personally to those families affected, we also publicly announced that we would take every step possible to find the person or persons responsible."

Daoust said the suspects are not the children of postal employees. She did not provide further details.

The investigation into the letters, which Daoust said shocked the volunteer postal workers who staff Canada Post's Letter From Santa Program, resulted in the program being briefly shut down in the Ottawa area in mid-December.

Daoust, who helps run the Santa program, said new security measures have been implemented that will allow the 11,000 current and retired volunteer postal employees to continue delivering Santa's mail.

With files from the Canadian Press