This makes themes inherit widgets from their parents

for Magento 1.9x

Original post of the issue on Stackexchange (by me): Inherit Widgets from Theme Parent

The purpose of this module is to allow child themes to inherit widgets from their parents.

Widget sort order accross multple themes is not obeyed.

For sorting to be obeyed, put widgets in only one of the parent themes and nowhere else.

(package/theme names don't matter)

rwd / default
\_ rwd / palasis <-- all widgets live here
   \_ rwd / palasis-green
   \_ rwd / palasis-*othercolors*...
   \_ rwd / palasis-xmas
   \_ rwd / palasis-summer

all child themes must specify their parentage in theme.xml

eg. for rwd/palasis-green put xml file at: design/frontend/rwd/palasis-green/etc/theme.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<theme>
    <parent>rwd/palasis</parent>
</theme>

Just drag and drop app into your Magento root.