How do you react to undesirable gifts to your child from family members?

Well, the holidays are just around the corner and I expect my 18 month old son to get lots of gifts. Some people, particularly my mom, have quite different tastes than I do, and this is especially obvious when it comes to clothing. I like my son to wear quality; I don't like logos, I don't like synthetic materials, baggy clothes, etc. she is much less fussy. We've gotten a lot of second hand stuff from her that have just given us more trouble than it was worth. I used to lie and say I liked stuff she got which may have gotten me in this mess in the first place. She's also very defensive/proud of her "good deals" though i have to remind her sometimes that a broken jacket is a broken jacket! There's also certain big box stores I just abhor. "Yeah you got that hat for $3 because the company only paid the workers in the Philippines 3 cents to make it!"To avoid some of this at xmas we first laid out a "no gifts" policy but it's their only grandchild, not to mention the first Xmas they spend with him, so maybe that was unreasonable on our part. She insisted to get him a few things and we were okay with that as long as our son didn't spend an entire morning opening one gift after another, completely overstimulated. I also made a plea to avoid plastic in any toys she was getting.So what do you soon Christmas if/when you are repulsed by gifts your child gets from others? Feign appreciation or ask if you could return the item and get something else? I don't want to come across as unappreciative but it's been years of accumulating junk and I'm really sick of it. As is my husband. It's just getting us further away from the lifestyle we aspire to.TL;dr how to handle folks giving junk to your kid for Xmas: feign appreciation or a different strategy? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2gKAwmU