Automated Birthday & Anniversary Wishes from Airtable via Gmail

Overview

This workflow automatically sends personalized birthday and anniversary wishes to your contacts (clients, employees, or members) every day at 8 AM. It checks an Airtable base for any records where today matches the person's date of birth or anniversary, then sends a warm email via Gmail. Perfect for maintaining relationships without manual effort.

How It Works

1. Schedule Trigger — Runs the workflow daily at 8 AM (no auth)
2. Search Client — Queries Airtable for records where the Date_of_Birth or Anniversary field matches today's month and day (API Key auth)
3. Check Available Dates — An IF node that verifies the record actually has a date in either field (no auth)
4. No Operation, do nothing — A placeholder for records that don't have a date (false branch)
5. Generate Subject & Body — A Code node that creates a custom subject line and message depending on whether it's a birthday or anniversary (no auth)
6. Send Emails — Sends the email to the person's address using Gmail (OAuth2)

Node Details

• Schedule Trigger (No auth) — Configured to trigger at 8:00 AM every day. You can adjust the hour in the node settings.
• Search Client (API Key auth) — Uses an Airtable credential. The filter formula =OR(AND({Date_of_Birth}, MONTH({Date_of_Birth})=MONTH(TODAY()), DAY({Date_of_Birth})=DAY(TODAY())), AND({Anniversary}, MONTH({Anniversary})=MONTH(TODAY()), DAY({Anniversary})=DAY(TODAY()))) finds all records where either date matches today.
• Check Available Dates (No auth) — Two conditions combined with AND: Date_of_Birth is not empty AND Anniversary is not empty. This ensures the record has at least one date to work with. Records that pass go to the true branch; others go to the false branch (No Operation).
• Generate Subject & Body (No auth) — JavaScript code that extracts the person's name, email, and dates. It compares today's month-day to the date fields and sets a subject like "🎂 Happy Birthday!" or "💍 Happy Anniversary!" along with a friendly message. The output includes the original data plus subject, message, and sendTo.
• Send Emails (OAuth2) — Uses a Gmail credential. Sends a plain text email to the recipient's email address with the generated subject and message. The appendAttribution option is disabled to keep the email clean.

Setup Instructions

1. Airtable — Create a base with a table containing at least these fields: Full Name (text), Email Address (email), Date_of_Birth (date), Anniversary (date). Populate with your contacts.
2. Airtable Credential — In n8n, create an Airtable credential using your API key (get it from your Airtable account settings).
3. Gmail Credential — Create a Gmail OAuth2 credential in n8n. You'll need a Google Cloud project with the Gmail API enabled and the necessary redirect URIs configured.
4. Update Node Parameters — Open the Search Client node and select your Airtable base and table. The filter formula is already set; you may need to adjust field names if they differ.
5. Activate Workflow — Once everything is connected, toggle the workflow to active. It will run daily at 8 AM.

Use Cases & Variations

• Employee Recognition — Replace the email with a Slack message to a company channel for public recognition.
• Client Appreciation — Add a discount code or special offer in the email body.
• Multi‑channel — Combine with SMS (e.g., Twilio) for a more personal touch.
• Different Triggers — Change the schedule to run weekly or on specific days.
• Custom Templates — Modify the Code node to pull from a Google Doc or use HTML email formatting.

This workflow is easily adaptable to any scenario where you want to automatically celebrate important dates with your network.

{
  "name": "Birthday / Anniversary Wishes",
  "nodes": [
    {
      "parameters": {
        "rule": {
          "interval": [
            {
              "triggerAtHour": 8
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "id": "8f60ab45-253a-437e-be95-f6a6b3e30799",
      "name": "Schedule Trigger",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger",
      "position": [
        -760,
        120
      ],
      "typeVersion": 1.2
    },
    {
      "parameters": {
        "operation": "search",
        "base": {
          "__rl": true,
          "value": "appPpy7OlMovX9FcB",
          "mode": "list",
          "cachedResultName": "SaaS Support Management",
          "cachedResultUrl": "https://airtable.com/appPpy7OlMovX9FcB"
        },
        "table": {
          "__rl": true,
          "value": "tblakT5rEzqbW9m3v",
          "mode": "list",
          "cachedResultName": "Users",
          "cachedResultUrl": "https://airtable.com/appPpy7OlMovX9FcB/tblakT5rEzqbW9m3v"
        },
        "filterByFormula": "=OR(\n  AND(\n    {Date_of_Birth},\n    MONTH({Date_of_Birth}) = MONTH(TODAY()),\n    DAY({Date_of_Birth}) = DAY(TODAY())\n  ),\n  AND(\n    {Anniversary},\n    MONTH({Anniversary}) = MONTH(TODAY()),\n    DAY({Anniversary}) = DAY(TODAY())\n  )\n)\n",
        "options": {}
      },
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.airtable",
      "typeVersion": 2.1,
      "position": [
        -560,
        120
      ],
      "id": "b989b923-a660-4f4c-afb6-d94983cead97",
      "name": "Search Client",
// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)