I appreciate that people love to give DS gifts but I really can't stand all the plastic toys he gets! Now that he's older this is mainly what people give him rather than clothes and soft toys and our house is filled with colourful, plastic crap which I feel guilty about giving away as they were gifts. I'd much prefer that he had a few nice wooden (or any other natural material) toys and a stack of nice books than a whole bunch of rubbish! Most of the time he's content banging on a pot with a wooden spoon or rolling some tin cans around the floor anyway...

Anyway my question is.....Is there a polite way to go about asking people to refrain from giving DS plastic toys? My immediate family know my stance on this but I don't know how to go about telling others my feelings. It's DS's 1st b'day soon so obviously he is going to get spoilt rotten but I'd much rather they come with no gift at all than something so bad for the enviroment and full of hideous chemicals. It feels rude to invite people to a party and then say please only bring presents made of such and such. What do I do?!