The theme for this year's news2day art competition was 'Celebrating Christmas 2020'.
However, to look at the art that has filled the walls of the newsroom and adjoining corridors, you may well have thought the theme was 'Christmas in a Time of Covid'.
Santas with masks and sanitiser, zoom conversations with relatives, Christmas bunting that declares the need to keep a distance of two meters, and Christmas trees decorated with Covid-19 baubles feature among the entries.
This year also saw a record number of paintings and drawings submitted to the annual Christmas Art competition run by the children's news programme.
After last year's bumper year of some 4,000 entries, the number in 2020 topped 10,000.
"We are always amazed at how children engage with the news," news2day editor Anne-Marie Smyth said.
A Christmas art competition run by @news2dayRTE has given a snapshot of the impact that Covid-19 has had on younger people. A record entry of more than 10,000 paintings and drawings were sent into the show | https://t.co/rQSN5wm2c8 pic.twitter.com/bwz3rNPw7G
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 25, 2020
"Each year they seem to zone in on something that has caught their attention, so last year it was climate change, the year before that it was homelessness.
"They have a really strong social conscience, and I think they get what's really important," Ms Smyth added.
Looking at all of the images on display, Child Art Psychotherapist Gerry Pollard said it was like looking at a "wall of poetry."
"I see a wall of innocence, but it's a very sophisticated form of innocence," Mr Pollard said, "this condenses language around this pretty awful time of Covid."
"There is a magic in trying to articulate something that is beyond words," Mr Pollard added.
Aisling Mulligan, Consultant and Clinical Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UCD, was also bowled over by the work on show.
"I think its amazing the number and the variety of pictures the children have sent in. Children are giving us the message that they know they need to wear a mask, that Santy might be wearing a mask, they know that Santy might need to use hand sanitiser" Professor Mulligan said.
"Children will draw what's around them, they are working through any concerns that they might have through their art and they are just reflecting what is going on in the world around them.
"It is really positive if parents can chat to their children about their art and find out about it, that would be a really good thing to do," Professor Mulligan said.
After weeks of carefully judging our Christmas Art Competition, we have our winner for 2020! The standard this year was amazing and we've had more entries than ever before, literally thousands and thousands. We looked at every single one and were so impressed. You're all amazing! pic.twitter.com/apQuki5wrh
— RTÉ news2day (@news2dayRTE) November 24, 2020
Of course in any competition, there can only be one winner.
Abby O'Reilly's winning entry, showed groups of people celebrating Christmas in three snow globes, together but apart.
On Friday, the 12-year-old from Rathcoole in Co Dublin will switch on the RTÉ Christmas lights in Donnybrook.
