How to prevent a toy tsunami?

Apologies for raising this topic before Halloween, but the holiday catalogs all arrived this week and they got me thinking...

This Christmas will be the first for our daughter, Alena, who is the 1st grandchild on both sides of our family. Family members already adore buying her things whenever they are inspired, including toys, clothes and books. Like most kids (I think?), Alena tends to prefer playing with real household items over toys, so the majority of her stuffed animals and toys get ignored. I have done my best to borrow from friends all the different baby gear and toys she might use at a certain stage, so that I can give them back and not amass a huge collection of plastic crap. The challenge lies in how to encourage/guide family members in their very generous desire to give. Does anyone have ideas of gifts I could suggest that would be fun, useful and longer-term for a 1-year old? I live in D.C. so the zoo and museums are free (otherwise season passes would be great), and the only other idea I have is a gift certificate to a nice photo studio for portraits (but that's really for me!).