Some ideas...

White unmarked tennis balls tied with a tiny red ribbon and presented in red buckets.

NERDS (the candy) to symbolize the Nerds (me and Joe). We might wrap them in some nice japanese paper to make it look pretty. We're also considering stacking them up in such that the center of gravity is in the middle, but the top few boxes are to the right of the center of gravity. It will be tough though since the weight of the candy boxes will vary so they might topple over.

A red fleece blanket folded on top of the chair. Ikea has them for $4 each but the color might be too R.E.D.

A beige/red patterned pillow, or a beige pillow with a red ribbon tied around it with a gift tag that doubles as a seating card.

Rubik's cube (because we're nerdy). They're really expensive though, so we probably won't do this one.