Circular Christmas at Second Nature

What is Circular Christmas?

Christmas is when the bins fill fastest - wrapping, decorations, gifts nobody quite wanted. Circular Christmas is how we answer that at Second Nature, because giving materials a second life is how our hometels already work, all year round. The same spent coffee grounds from Winnie’s that go into our lampshades now become ornaments for the tree, soap at the front desk and Grounds for Celebration, our festive espresso martini.

It’s the Five Cares in practice: care for the planet in what we reuse, care for place and people in what we give back to the charities around each site, and care with purpose in making it something everyone can join, whether you’re staying with us or not.

Where the coffee grounds go at Christmas

You order a flat white at Winnie's on your way out. The barista knocks the used grounds out of the portafilter, a dark puck that lands in the bin with a thud, and gets on with the next one. You don't notice, and nobody would expect you to. Most of the year, that's the end of the story.

This December it isn't. The grounds from Winnie's are collected and turned into things you can drink, hang on a tree and wash your hands with. That's what Circular Christmas is: taking something we'd otherwise throw away and finding it a second use, then giving what it earns to the streets around each hometel.

It won't fix the waste problem, and we're not pretending it does. December is when the wrapping paper piles up, gifts get opened and forgotten, and the bins fill fastest. An ornament made from coffee doesn't undo any of that. What it does is make the question visible. Before something goes in the bin, could it be something else?

*2025 data verified to ISO 14064-1. Calculated using CHSB methodology and UK Government conversion factors.

Grounds for celebration

Here's what the coffee grounds become this year:

Grounds for Celebration - a festive take on the espresso martini, made with a coffee liqueur crafted from spent coffee grounds from Winnie's.
3D-printed ornaments, £7 - printed from a filament made with 10% spent coffee grounds, in a set of designs for the tree: a gingerbread house, a present, a Christmas pudding and a festive glass, plus a local icon for each site. Guinness in Belfast, Big Ben in London, the Bargate in Southampton. From Friday 4th December, you can watch them being printed on site.
Coffee-ground soap, £7 - a bar made with used coffee grounds, stamped with the Second Nature mark.

You can buy the ornaments and soap at the front desk of each hometel. They're made in small batches, so once a design sells out, it's gone. £1 from every sale goes to a local charity near each site:

Second Nature Chiswick - Barons Court Project
Second Nature Belfast - The People's Kitchen
Second Nature Southampton - City Life

So an ornament on your tree also helps someone a few streets away.

The Giving Tree with KidsOut

Christmas morning looks very different for a child living in a refuge. Often they've left home with whatever could be carried, and presents aren't on the list. KidsOut's Giving Tree changes that by collecting gifts matched to what children of each age want, so every child has something to open that's theirs.

This is our first year taking part. From the week of 9th November, a Giving Tree will stand in the Living Room at each hometel, with a QR code that takes you to everything you need to give. You don't need to be staying with us to give, and how you give depends on which site you visit.

Chiswick

Scan the QR code on the Giving Tree for gift ideas by age, or browse the KidsOut wish list
Buy a new toy and leave it unwrapped
Bring it to the Giving Tree in the Living Room by Tuesday 8th December

The team takes every gift on to KidsOut, so you only need to carry it as far as the tree.

Southampton

Scan the QR code on the Giving Tree for gift ideas by age, or browse the KidsOut wish list
Buy a new toy and leave it unwrapped
Bring it to the Giving Tree in the Living Room by Tuesday 8th December

The team takes the gifts to the University of Southampton collection point, about a mile from the hometel.

Belfast

KidsOut doesn't have collection points in Northern Ireland, so giving in Belfast happens online
Scan the QR code on the Giving Tree to choose a gift from the KidsOut shop
Or post a new, unwrapped toy straight to the KidsOut Warehouse, 130 High Town Road, Luton LU2 0DJ, open until Tuesday 22nd December

Your gift reaches the same children, just without a stop at the tree.

At every site, toys need to be new and unwrapped so KidsOut can match them to the right child, and each gift has to fit inside a toy box of 49cm x 32cm x 32cm. If you'd rather give money, you can donate to KidsOut directly. In Chiswick and Southampton, you're welcome to bring your presents in and leave them under the tree until Tuesday 8th December.

Swap & reuse

Then there's the jumper that isn't your size, the candle you'll never light and the third copy of the same book. On Sunday 3rd January, from 12pm to 2pm, each hometel will run a Swap & Reuse station in its shared space. Bring the gifts you won't use and leave with something you will. Everyone who swaps gets a coffee on us.

Open to everyone

You don't need a room booked to take part. Anyone can pick up an ornament or a bar of soap at the front desk, order a Grounds for Celebration at Winnie's, bring a toy to the Giving Tree in Chiswick or Southampton, give online in Belfast, or turn up with an unwanted gift on Sunday 3rd January.

Each one does the same small thing. A coffee puck becomes an ornament, and what it raises goes to a charity down the road. A toy picked up on your lunch break becomes a present for a child in a refuge. A jumper someone else didn't want becomes the one you wear until March.

None of it needs a grand gesture. It just takes a second look before something goes in the bin.